Lloyd urges Windies board, players to resolve their differences

Johannesburg, Oct.3 (ANI): Legendary former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd has called for common sense on the warring parties in the Caribbean in the hope they can make peace in time to send a full-strength touring team to Australia this summer.

The region is mired in a bitter and protracted contract dispute between the players and their board, which has seen the likes of Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan stay away from the Champions Trophy, with the West Indies represented by a team of inexperienced kids and obscure veterans.

"I am sure that good sense will prevail in the end. I don't think people want it to go on. I think pressure will be brought to bear on everybody, and then they will come to a very good agreement," The Age quoted Lloyd, who was captain when the West Indies were kings in the 1970s and '80s, as saying.

Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland is expected to hold talks with his West Indies counterpart Julian Hunt in an effort to save the Australian summer. A second-string touring team would make for a dreadful spectacle over three Tests, and have catastrophic consequences for the host's broadcast partners and sponsors.

Sutherland told The Age recently that CA had begun to formulate contingency plans, but there are few options - other nations are busy when the West Indies are due to tour.

The depleted West Indies, captained by 37-year-old Floyd Reifer, have recorded three honourable losses at the Champions Trophy, but Reifer's team was thrashed by Bangladesh in Test and ODI series earlier this year.

Lloyd said the second-string team deserved credit for fronting up in a crisis. "I thought they didn't disgrace themselves here," he said.

"They're a young side, young guys who were asked to come and play this at a moment's notice, but I think by the time they get to Australia, I hope everything will be all right and we'll have a full and much better squad, with more experience," Lloyd said. (ANI)