Three years after he was discarded for being too old following the last World Cup, Sri Lanka batsman Hashan Tillakaratne was recalled on Friday for next year's tournament.

A cricket board official said the 35-year-old had been named in the squad but a formal announcement would have to wait until the island's sports minister confirmed the team.

"We are still waiting for the minister to reply," the official said.

Sri Lanka, who won the World Cup in 1996, failed to qualify for the second round in 1999 in England.

Their 2003 campaign starts on February 10 against New Zealand in Bloemfontein and the cricket-obsessed island has turned to the old faces, including Tillakaratne and 37-year-old Aravinda de Silva.

De Silva retired from Test cricket in October but remains on the one-day scene where he famously hit a match-winning century in the World Cup final against Australia in 1996.

Tillakaratne has played just two one-day matches since 1999 but since returning to the Test side in 2001 he has been one of Sri Lanka's best batsmen and scored the country's first Test century in South Africa on the recent tour.

He will also act as reserve wicketkeeper, replacing Romesh Kaluwitharna, who has failed to impress on Sri Lanka's tour of Australia, where the visitors have lost once to Australia and twice to England.

Tillakaratne and de Silva, who missed the three one-dayers for personal reasons, will fly to Australia for the rest of the tour, the board official said.

De Silva, Sri Lanka's all-time run scorer in one-day matches with 8,894 runs from 293 one-dayers, will play in his fifth World Cup while Tillakaratne will make his fourth appearance.

Tillakaratne has scored 3,457 runs in 183 one-dayers.

Also named to the World Cup squad were opener Avishka Gunawardene and seam bowler Buddika Fernando.

Spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has recovered from a hernia operation and is expected to play in the remaining one-day matches in Australia.