England assistant coach Matthew Maynard has challenged Dimitri Mascarenhas and Chris Tremlett to play themselves into World Cup 2007 contention in Hong Kong this weekend.

Glamorgan veteran Maynard, 38, will be captaining England in his sixth Hong Kong Sixes campaign at the Kowloon cricket Club - where he will be closely monitoring the performances of Hampshire duo Mascarenhas and Tremlett.

Maynard, the new assistant to England supremo Duncan Fletcher, his former Glamorgan coach, has told Mascarenhas and Tremlett that they are both in England's 2007 World Cup plans

He said: "The whole squad is young enough and has the talent and potential to play in the 2007 World Cup but we need to see how they perform under pressure, and this tournament will help tell us about their character.

"It is pretty intense cricket so it will help us guage whether they are ready for the step up. Dimi is definitely in the selectors' thoughts. We need someone as cover for Freddie Flintoff.

"Dimi has a great chance of making the one-day side and a lot of people have come through the Sixes route, like Freddie and Paul Collingwood."

Other than Mascarenhas and Tremlett, Essex's Graham Napier is the only player who was not part of the third England team to lift the Hong Kong Sixes title in Kowloon last year.

"Dimi, Chris and Graham Napier all have the potential to be genuine all rounders," added Maynard. "You can have too many similar players like Mark Ealham, Matthew Fleming and Adam Hollioake, like England did a few years ago.

"But there is certainly room for another genuine all-rounder alongside Freddie in the one-day team.

"Dimi is a great athlete and a wonderful striker of the ball. He can contain batsmen for long periods in both forms of the game and you always need players like that.

"Chris could be a devastating bowler with the bounce he gets from his height, and he knows how to hold a bat which helps as well. If he stays fit he is someone I can see going into the Test side before the one-day team."

Mascarenhas was controversially left out of the 30-man ICC Champions Trophy squad in the summer. Since then the London-born, Perth raised all-rounder has turned down an offer to play for Western Australia during the current domestic season Down Under, as it would have meant he could only play for Hampshire as an overseas player next year.

Now, after finishing the 2004 season as Hampshire's player of the year, he is ready to boost his England claims .

The 27-year-old said: "It'll be good fun. It's basically a shortened form of Twenty20 but at least with Twenty20 you have a bit of time to get in, you haven't got any time at all in this.

"I'm just glad to have been picked for England at last. We've been told we've been picked because we're future England players so we'll be taking it pretty seriously."

Tremlett, 23, said: "We met the rest of the squad at Edgbaston last week and Maynard told us that, excluding him, we all have the chance to play one-day cricket for England and that we were all in their plans, which was really encouraging.

"I've never been to Hong Kong before or played six-a-side cricket so I'm really looking forward to it. It's all going to be about getting bat on ball."