Dubai

Following the retirement of the West Indies greats of the seventies, the most outstanding cricketer was Brian Lara. In 1998, Brian Lara and Carl Hooper were stripped of their titles as captain and vice-captain respectively and withdrawn from the tour of South Africa.

The West Indies cricket board in 2005 again left him out of the West Indies squad over personal endorsement contracts. Lara and six other players - his vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith, Fidel Edwards and Ravi Rampaul - were dropped from the home series against South Africa and Pakistan due to the dispute arising out of a clash between the West Indies’ main sponsor, Digicel, and the players’ personal deals with Cable & Wireless. The issue was resolved after the first Test of the series against South Africa and Lara, returning to the team for the second Test, scored 196.

Lara, despite having the quality to lead the team from the front and scoring heavily, was removed as captain. Lara took over in 1997 when Walsh was dismissed after a 3-0 loss in Pakistan but he resigned in 2000 after 18 Tests (won 5, lost 11, drawn 2) and was replaced by Jimmy Adams.

Adams lost his captaincy in one year and Carl Hooper was given the captaincy. Lara was again appointed captain in 2003.

Reacting to the latest incident involving players pulling out from the India tour, Lara said: “There have always been financial problems going way back to all the eras in West Indian cricket. You heard stories from Sir Frank Worrell, right through to the Kerry Packer days till today. Those issues haven’t been handled properly over the years and may be they’re still flustering as we speak,”

Star batsman Chris Gayle and West Indies board had a longstanding tussle. In 2005, Gayle was involved in a dispute with the board over sponsorship deal with Cable and Wireless.

In April 2011 Gayle criticised the West Indies Cricket Board and coach Ottis Gibson and did not play for the team for more than a year. Gayle was even asked by the board to apologise over his statements which he made in an interview to a radio station.