Dharamsala:In an extraordinary turn of&nbsp;events, the West Indies cricket team on Friday pulled out of the&nbsp;remaining part of its India tour in the wake of an acrimonious&nbsp;ongoing pay dispute with their Board, prompting a livid BCCI&nbsp;to rope in Sri Lanka for a five-match ODI series.
The aggrieved Caribbean players were persuaded to take&nbsp;the field for the fourth ODI but have conveyed their decision&nbsp;to call off the remaining part of tour to the BCCI, which is&nbsp;now contemplating legal action against the visitors.
"The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has informed the&nbsp;BCCI of its decision to cancel the rest of its ongoing tour to&nbsp;India because of a dispute with its players, and has advised&nbsp;the BCCI that its players will return home immediately," BCCI&nbsp;Secretary Sanjay Patel said.
"The reason given by WICB is that there were internal&nbsp;issues among their boys. The BCCI will be going to ICC and&nbsp;planning to sue the WICB and claim for damages. We will not&nbsp;take this lying down as we have cooperated with them in every&nbsp;aspect," Patel said.
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2014/dec/west-indies-players.jpg" alt="West Indies" />
West Indies players during a practice session before the 2nd ODI at New Delhi. Photo: PTI
"The BCCI is shocked and extremely disappointed at the&nbsp;decision taken by the WICB. The WICB's inability to resolve internal issues with its players and allowing the same to&nbsp;affect an ongoing bilateral series does not reflect well on&nbsp;any of those involved. The withdrawal gives little thought to&nbsp;the future of the game, the players and the long standing&nbsp;relations between the BCCI and the WICB," a strongly-worded&nbsp;statement from the BCCI said.&nbsp;
Hours after the sudden development, the BCCI managed to&nbsp;persuade Sri Lanka to play a five-match ODI series, which is&nbsp;likely to be held from November 1 to 15.&nbsp;
A top BCCI official said that it was decided to play only&nbsp;the ODIs, keeping in mind the upcoming World Cup in Australia&nbsp;and New Zealand.&nbsp;
"Scheduling a Test series at such a short notice would&nbsp;have been difficult for us since the team has to leave for&nbsp;Australia shortly. So it was decided to have an ODI series,&nbsp;which will help the team for the World Cup," the official said.&nbsp;
Venues which were deprived of the matches -- Kolkata,&nbsp;Cuttack, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Ahmedabad -- are likely to&nbsp;be alloted the One-dayers. The BCCI will announce the fixtures&nbsp;in the next few days.
The BCCI made it clear that the decision to pull out was&nbsp;taken unilaterally by the West Indies Board and its players&nbsp;inspite of several appeals to them to honour the commitment.
"The BCCI wishes to inform all its stakeholders,&nbsp;especially ardent fans of the Indian cricket team, that this&nbsp;is a unilateral decision taken by the WICB and its players, in&nbsp;spite of several appeals to the WICB to honour its commitment&nbsp;and complete the series," Patel said.
"The BCCI will pursue all options available to protect&nbsp;its rights, whilst seeking appropriate action from the ICC to&nbsp;ensure that its interests and those of the game at large will&nbsp;not suffer any damage due to such acts of indiscretion," he&nbsp;said.
"It was only after my persuasion they agreed to play&nbsp;today's match. They were hell bent on not to play and leave&nbsp;for home tomorrow," BCCI Joint Secretary Anurag Thakur said.&nbsp;
The West Indies were scheduled to play one more ODI in&nbsp;Kolkata on Monday and a Twenty20 in Cuttack on October 22.&nbsp;
They were also scheduled to play three Test matches in&nbsp;Hyderabad (Oct 30-Nov 3), Bangalore (Nov 7-11) and Ahmedabad&nbsp;(Nov 15-19).
The repercussion of the Caribbean players' move to&nbsp;abandon the tour could have long term implications as many of the them are popular players in India and play in the&nbsp;cash-rich IPL, owned by the BCCI.&nbsp;
The crisis broke out on the eve of the first ODI in Kochi&nbsp;when the players threatened to boycott the match in protest&nbsp;against the contract, handed out to them by the WICB.
Although the players competed in that match, they had&nbsp;made it clear that their decision should not in any way be&nbsp;construed as an acceptance by the players of the unreasonable&nbsp;terms and conditions put forward to us by WICB. They had said&nbsp;it was not an acceptance of the purported new Memorandum of&nbsp;Understanding, Bravo had said in a letter to Players'&nbsp;Association chief Wavell Hinds. 
"The Players will not accept any agreement it has had no&nbsp;input in, did not give its consent to and which would infringe&nbsp;on its rights. We reserve all of our rights and intend to seek&nbsp;independent advice so as to establish the players best course&nbsp;of action," the letter said. 
The new contracts would see Caribbean players' pay go&nbsp;down by approximately 75 per cent. The contracts were given to&nbsp;the players after they reached India.&nbsp;
The players are also disgruntled with the West Indies&nbsp;Players Association president and chief executive Wavell Hinds&nbsp;for agreeing to the terms without consulting them.&nbsp;
According to reports, the players claimed Hinds&nbsp;"hoodwinked" them and did not take their inputs while signing&nbsp;a new MoU with West Indies Cricket Board last month, under&nbsp;which they would suffer a significant cut in their pay. 
As per the new MoU, the players "understand" their Test,&nbsp;ODI and T20 fees "have been decreased by 75 per cent"; that&nbsp;they will receive "no compensation for the use of our rights.&nbsp;That has been decreased by 100 per cent"; and their ICC fees&nbsp;have been "decreased by close to 100 per cent". 
The players said they were being kept in the dark about&nbsp;the "purported agreement". Bravo and his team-mates insisted&nbsp;that they want the old structure back as the new one is&nbsp;"significantly different from what we received in the past."&nbsp;
This is not first time that the players are locked in a&nbsp;pay dispute with the WICB. The players have threatened to go on strike in those instances as well but have ultimately come&nbsp;around after hectic negotiations.

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West Indies call off India tour, Sri Lanka fill void with five ODIs

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