By Ben Woodall
February 17 2003

Worcestershire's Gareth Batty and Kabir Ali have been included in the National Academy squad for their tour to Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

A 14-man squad has been announced for the Academys month long tour to Malaysia and Sri Lanka.Batty and Ali are included alongside the following youngsters:

Ian Bell - Warwickshire

Rikki Clarke - Surrey

Richard Dawson - Yorkshire

Robert Key - Kent

Kyle Hogg - Lancashire

Gordon Muchall - Durham

Monty Panesar - Northamptonshire

Chris Read - Nottinghamshire

Darren Stevens - Leicestershire

Chris Tremlett - Hampshire

Jim Troughton - Warwickshire

Mark Wallace - Glamorgan

The itinery for the tour includes games against Sri Lanka U-19's,Sri Lanka 'A' and a Sri Lankan Academy XI.I for one will be paying great attention to the results on this tour as this group of players are widely regarded as the pick of England's brightest hopes for the future.

Maybe they will succeed where many others have failed by one day regaining the Ashes (well....we can all dream can't we!)