Board rebuffed by would-be replacements

The saga of the lack of players for the forthcoming West Indies tour of Sri Lanka took another twist today with the news that the board had gone behind the back of the West Indies Players Association and tried to recruit members of the A team, currently in Sri Lanka, to replace the ten first-choice individuals who refused to sign the board's match/tour contracts.

Cricinfo has learnt that the A team were summoned to a meeting where the tour manager approached them on behalf of the board to see if they would be willing to fill the breach. According to sources, the players unanimously refused to discuss the matter, and subsequently contacted the board to advise it that they would not do anything until negotiations between WICB and WIPA were completed.

And it is reported that the board is casting its net even wider in a bid to ensure that it has enough players to complete the tour party, with claims that a number of former internationals have been contacted as to their availability.

The news is hardly likely to make ongoing negotiations between the board and WIPA any easier. But the board is now backed into a corner. If it fails to send a side to Sri Lanka then it would almost certainly face heavy fines of at least US$2 million under ICC regulations. And given its current financial state, that is money it just cannot afford.