West Indies pull out of ongoing India tour; Sri Lanka to fill in with 5 ODIs

In a shocking development, the West Indies players on Friday abruptly called off their India tour over an ongoing payment structure dispute between the WICB and WIPA.

New Delhi: In a shocking development, the India-West Indies tour was abruptly called off on Friday due to the ongoing payment structure dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and its players association.

Neighbours Sri Lanka will now fill the void where they will play five ODIs, from November 1 to November 15.

BCCI issued a press release through their official account on Twitter where they expressed their shock over the issue.

"The BCCI is shocked and extremely disappointed at the decision taken by the WICB. The WICB’s inability to resolve internal issues with its players and allowing the same to affect an ongoing bilateral series does not reflect well on any of those involved. The withdrawal gives little thought to the future of the game, the players and the long standing relations between the BCCI and the WICB," it said.

The presse release further stated that, "The BCCI wishes to inform all its stakeholders, especially ardent fans of the Indian cricket team, that this is a unilateral decision taken by the WICB and its players, in spite of several appeals to the WICB to honour its commitment and complete the series."

Notably, this was India's first series at home. The India-West Indies series being called off means there would be no fifth ODI, no lone T20 and no three-match Test series.

The West Indies players continued to protest against the payment dispute with the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) by wearing black armbands in the second One-day International against India.

The Dwayne Bravo-led side had threatened to pull out of the five-match ODI series before the opening match in Kochi but after a 124-run resounding victory at the Nehru Stadium and with some intervention by the BCCI, the players had therefore to carry on with the series.