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THE England Performance Squad announced yesterday offers reassurance to a clutch of recent discards that they remain in the selectors' plans this summer.

Centrally-contracted seamers Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison are automatically among the 26 nominated - anything else would have been unthinkable - despite being dropped from the Test team during the series victory in New Zealand.

They join another apparently out-of-favour pair in Sussex wicketkeeper Matt Prior and Kent captain Robert Key - while there are also places for Lions young and slightly older, Adil Rashid, Michael Carberry and James Tredwell.

Opener Key last played for his country in South Africa in 2004- 05, and Prior was in the cold for the second half of this past winter after being dropped following the pre-Christmas Tests in Sri Lanka and subsequently not invited to join the Lions in India.

His inclusion as one of three wicketkeepers is perhaps a hint that England coach Peter Moores, formerly his boss at Hove, may agree with Prior that he could yet have a shot at international cricket via his batting ability alone. After the announcement of a squad which almost inevitably includes the 12 players on annual central contracts, and 14 without - no sixmonth agreements are in place - national selector Geoff Miller explained.

The England Performance Squad is designed to allow Peter Moores to closely monitor the development of international players and better prepare them for the demands of the international game,'' said Miller.

That is a heartening state of affairs for the likes of Prior and Key - as well as one-time world number one bowler Harmison and Hoggard, both back at their counties with a brief to come up with the form required to make the selectors sit up and take notice.

But for young seamer Stuart Broad, chief beneficiary of Harmison and Hoggard's loss of form, and Tim Ambrose - Prior's Test match successor as well as the man he previously ousted from the gloves at Sussex - the lack of provision for a six-month contract is perhaps a disappointment.

There was no place in the squad for Michael Yardy who captained England Lions' tour of India while Durham pacemen Liam Plunkett and Graham Onions were also overlooked.

Miller continued: The selectors can name up to 30 players in the EPS, but we have decided to keep four places vacant at present in order to give ourselves greater flexibility - and we will reserve the right to add further players to the squad if their performances in domestic cricket merit it.

We were delighted with the progress made by several of our younger players during the winter both with the full England side and the England Lions but have decided not to award sixmonth summer contracts to any individuals at this stage of the season,'' Miller confirmed.

ENGLAND PERFORMANCE SQUAD 2008: T Ambrose (Warwickshire, wkt), J Anderson( Lancashire), I Bell (Warwickshire), R Bopara (Essex), S Broad (Nottinghamshire), M Carberry (Hampshire), P Collingwood (Durham), A Cook (Essex), A Flintoff (Lancashire), S Harmison (Durham), M Hoggard (Yorkshire), R Key (Kent), D Mascarenhas (Hampshire), P Mustard (Durham, wkt), M Panesar (Northamptonshire), K Pietersen (Hampshire), M Prior (Sussex, wkt), A Rashid (Yorkshire), O Shah (Middlesex), A Strauss (Middlesex), R Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire), G Swann (Nottinghamshire), J Tredwell (Kent), C Tremlett (Hampshire), M Vaughan (Yorkshire), L Wright (Sussex).

8:43am Tuesday 22nd April 2008

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