Clive Llyod apologises for Windies team calling off tour

Former captain and West Indies Cricket Board selection committee chairman Clive Lloyd today apologised for the Caribbean team's unprecedented move to pull out of remainder of India tour in the wake of an acrimonious pay dispute with WICB, saying that it was a mistake on the part of the players to have done so.

"I would like to apologise for West Indies team aborting the India tour. It is a mistake on the part of players to have the left the tour in between," Llyod, captain of West Indies' 1975 and 1979 World Cup-winning teams, said at the 'Aaj Tak Salaam Cricket' conclave at a city hotel.

"We have great affection and love for Indian people and I hope that this will not affect our future relations. I hope the damage is not irreparable," said Llyod, who was with the West Indies team in India for the tour.

In an extraordinary step, the West Indies cricket team yesterday pulled out of the remaining part of its India tour in the wake of an acrimonious ongoing pay dispute with their Board after playing the fourth and final ODI in Dharamsala, prompting a livid BCCI to contemplate legal action against the visitors.

The aggrieved Caribbean players were persuaded to take the field for the fourth ODI but have conveyed their decision to call off the remaining part of tour to the BCCI.