Lara set to miss Australia series

Brian Lara and several senior West Indies players look set to miss a triangular series in Australia in January because of a contract dispute.

The row centres mainly over official insistence that players cannot without prior approval endorse rival companies to the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB)'s main sponsor.

Only nine of the 25 squad members invited by the WICB to a three-week pre-tournament camp in Barbados starting next Monday have accepted, the board said on its website.

West Indies selectors were meeting later on Wednesday to invite other players. The nine who accepted have agreed to criteria linked to the invitation, the WICB said. The decision of the other 16 was described as "regrettable".

In Australia, the Herald Sun newspaper said others who had refused the invitation included Mervyn Dillon,

Players not to have accepted the invitation had ruled themselves out of consideration for January's tour, the WICB said. But it added: "This does not prevent them from being considered in the future should they merit inclusion."

The row echoes the dispute which affected the Indian team before last year's World Cup.

Earlier this week West Indies coach Bennett King arrived in Antigua to take up his new job, saying his first task would be getting to know the players attending the camp.

King, 39, replaces Gus Logie, whose contract was terminated at the end of September just days after West Indies won the Champions Trophy one-day competition in England.

Pakistan are the third team in next year's Australian tournament.