Pietersen out of England T20 squad

Kevin Pietersens dream of helping England defend their World Twenty20 title appeared to have been dashed when he was left out Wednesday of an initial 30-man squad for this years edition in Sri Lanka.Pietersen, Englands man of the tournament when they won the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean two years ago -- their first major limited overs title -- recently retired from all white ball internationals.The South Africa-born batsman wanted to continue to play Twenty20 matches while opting out of 50 overs per side one-day international fixtures.But England said the terms of his central contract meant he had to be available for both of those formats and that the only alternative was to quit all limited overs international cricket, which he duly did.Team officials were concerned that if they granted Pietersen his wish England, now on a 10-match winning streak in ODIs, would see several other leading players also quit one-dayers.Pietersen, who remains one of the first-choice picks for the Test side, suggested last week he would return to one-day internationals if something could be done about making sure he wasnt burnt out by Englands packed schedule.But the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) held firm to their stance that players cannot pick and choose which limited overs matches they play in.Provisional England World Twenty20 squad: Stuart Broad, (capt), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Gareth Batty, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Scott Borthwick, Tim Bresnan, Danny Briggs, Jos Buttler, Alastair Cook, Steven Croft, Steven Davies (wkt), Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Craig Kieswetter (wkt), Michael Lumb, Stuart Meaker, Eoin Morgan, Graham Onions, Samit Patel, Matt Prior (wkt), Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Graeme Swann, James Taylor, James Tredwell, Chris Woakes, Luke Wright