Dash for cash: Jobs for the old boys as England name their rich-list for Stanford showdown

Ever since a brash American called Allen Stanford landed his helicopter at Lord's and gave a presidential wave to a bemused audience, the biggest question in English cricket has been the identity of those given the opportunity to cash in on the sport's biggest prize.

The answer, revealed at a soggier Lord's on Tuesday, was a squad full of familiar faces but precious little imagination.

England have picked the same 15-man squad for the Twenty20 match against the Stanford Superstars in Antigua on November 1 as they have for the seven-match 50-over one-day international series that follows in India, preferring to use a match which exists purely to give the players a bumper pay-day as part of a long-term building programme rather than a one-off.

Let's celebrate: Flintoff, Harmison, Anderson and Bell are in line for a bumper pay-day

That means Alastair Cook and Graeme Swann are included, even though they have little chance of playing in Antigua, while the likes of Graham Napier and Dawid Malan, who excelled at the shortest form of the game for their counties this season, miss out.

With each playing member of the England squad receiving, at today's exchange rates, £570,000 for just over three hours' work if they beat what is basically a West Indies side and the four reserves gaining around £142,000 each, the stakes are unprecedented.

As it is, Cook, Swann, Ravi Bopara and Ryan Sidebottom, the men most likely to be left on the sidelines, will become the best-paid drinks carriers in the history of the sport.

To be fair, the failure of 'specialists' like Darren Maddy, Chris Schofield and Jeremy Snape to make an impact for England in the first Twenty20 World Cup last year has convinced the selectors that they should back players of proven international quality.

Yet Napier in particular, who hit 16 sixes in an extraordinary innings of 152 for Essex against Sussex in the Twenty20 Cup this season, and Dimi Mascarenhas, who has rapidly and mysteriously become the forgotten man of England's limited-overs cricket, are highly unfortunate to miss out.

National selector Geoff Miller said: 'We feel we have players in this squad who are specialists at both Twenty20 and 50-over cricket. We want to win trophies and this is a stepping stone towards that. The money on offer wasn't a consideration. We have picked the squad purely on cricketing grounds.'

That squad will include Steve Harmison who, as Sportsmail reported on Tuesday, initially asked not to be considered for the Stanford challenge because he did not want to be seen as money-grabbing so soon after returning unexpectedly to England's one-day side.

Yet Miller confirmed that the principled Harmison has been reassured that he is being picked on merit and should have no qualms in accepting.

England, meanwhile, gave a clear indication that Michael Vaughan will walk straight back into the squad for the Test tour to India even if he fails to make a big score in Yorkshire's remaining matches this season.

Miller also emphasised at Lord's that England's faith in their former captain remains undiminished when he not only confirmed that Vaughan's central contract has been renewed but also that he will be welcomed back into the Test team at the first opportunity.

Vaughan struggled to make runs for much of the season for England before his resignation after the Edgbaston Test against South Africa and has averaged just 9.67 in his two matches since for Yorkshire.

Successor Kevin Pietersen was clearly the driving force in Vaughan retaining his central contract, worth in excess of £200,000, ahead of the likes of Owais Shah and Bopara, and Pietersen wants him not only to tour India but to be by his side when England bid to win back the Ashes next summer.

'We see Michael as part of the future of English cricket,' said Miller. 'He's having a tough time but, with his strength of character, I have no doubt that he will come through it.

'The selectors make the decisions but we talked to Kevin and he made it clear he wants Michael Vaughan in the side. He is an Ashes winner and he could be an integral part of next year's team.

'It would be nice if he got his game together in the remaining Yorkshire matches but his central contract is based on what he's done in the past and what he's capable of doing again. He's a quality player.'

The vote of confidence in Vaughan will increase the pressure on Andrew Strauss and, to a lesser extent, Cook and Ian Bell when England play Tests in Ahmedabad and Mumbai in December.The squad for those matches will be named on September 29.

Hugh Morris, the managing director of the England team, said yesterday that negotiations are taking place with the players' representatives over the conditions that will be put in place before they accept offers for next year's Indian Premier League.