He said: “What has resulted so far is a bit unfortunate and I hope it can be resolved in the near future. The main thing is that the West Indies’ tour to South Africa should be on.”The people want the tour to be on, and hopefully something positive will come out of it. Seven other players who have stayed in London with Lara and Hooper have been fined by the board, while the remaining seven players were last night flying to London to join the rest of the squad.
They will be accompanied by Ali Bacher, the managing director of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, and the West Indies’ tour manager, Clive Lloyd, who will hold crisis talks today aimed at saving the Test series.Lara is hopeful a compromise can be reached. Lara and his vice-captain, Carl Hooper, were sacked on Wednesday after a pay dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board – a move which has now thrown the entire trip to South Africa into doubt. Middlesbrough will have a full side and it looks like we won’t, despite the fact that we were originally given a blank weekend to accommodate the international fixtures.”The decision now rests with Uefa – but it has so far given no indication as to when it will make a decision All Curbishley can do is moan and wait.. THE SACKED West Indies captain, Brian Lara, said yesterday he believed the crisis-hit tour of South Africa would take place.

You might say clubs like Manchester United could cope without Roy Keane and Denis Irwin – but why should they have to?”Charlton’s managing director, Peter Varney, added: “It is a completely ridiculous situation. Our fans are going to turn up next week deprived of seeing two of their players and that’s not what they pay their season tickets for.”What if I lose two more players with injury this weekend? I’ve got to go into next week’s game without four players It’s poor thinking from the Premiership They could have avoided this. We spoke to Jim Smith, Joe Kinnear, Gordon Strachan, Alex Ferguson, Roy Hodgson, Roy Evans and Ruud Gullit because we’re all going to be penalised.”The Premiership prides itself on being the strongest League in the world but next Saturday it’s not going to be because it’s going to be deprived of players and I think it’s well within the Premiership’s powers to postpone those games and play them in the new year.”We thought it was Charlton not getting anywhere but apparently the bigger clubs have also expressed their fears but I don’t hold out much hope. Although the matter has now been passed to Uefa, European football’s ruling body, who can decide not to invoke the five-day rule, the Charlton manager remains livid that the Premier League have failed to act.”I find it quite ludicrous that we will go into Saturday’s game against Middlesbrough losing two players, ‘Boro losing none, and it could have been avoided,” Curbishley said “We contacted the Premiership five weeks ago with our fears. Curbishley will be without his captain, Mark Kinsella, and the goalkeeper Sasa Ilic for next Saturday’s Premiership game with Middlesbrough after the pair were called up for the Republic of Ireland’s rescheduled Euro 2000 qualifier against Yugoslavia. Both countries have invoked the five- day rule – and the Irish manager, Mick McCarthy, insists he will not release Kinsella to play for his club.
Charlton and a number of other similarly affected clubs approached the Premier League five weeks ago with their concerns but were told the League fixtures could not be rearranged. ALAN CURBISHLEY, the Charlton Athletic manager, yesterday launched a scathing attack on the Premier League for refusing to cancel next weekend’s fixtures after resigning himself to losing two key players due to international call-ups.

“That was not a prime reason for signing him, but it is always a possibility. Don’t forget we had Paul McGrath playing here well past his 35th birthday and often he was our best player.”Gregory has spent pounds 21m since the summer, on Merson, Alan Thompson and Steve Watson. Gregory, who has been searching for a replacement striker since Dwight Yorke’s move to Manchester United in August, said: “I now think we have a squad with the depth to challenge for the title.”. “He had a tough baptism under John Beck at Cambridge and I always believe that players who have had that sort of start appreciate their success and do not want to give it up.”Gregory is not worried about deciding who plays alongside Dublin against Spurs, with Collymore, Merson and Julian Joachim among his options.”It will be Tottenham who have the problem,” he said.Justifying the length of contract for a player nearing 30, Gregory suggested Dublin might eventually play at centre-half.

It is time to go forward,” he said.After rejecting the move to Blackburn, Dublin also turned down an approach from Leeds on Wednesday. He decided to join Villa, he said, both because of their League position and because he would not need to move from his home at Stratford-upon-Avon.”I’ve had a taste of playing for a top six club with Manchester United and even though I have enjoyed four good years with Coventry, I have not won any silverware and it is every player’s ambition to win trophies,” he said.Gregory said he admired Dublin for his skill as a striker, his leadership qualities and his grounding in the game “He has come up the hard way,” Gregory said. Upset by some highly personal remarks attributed to the Coventry chairman, Bryan Richardson, in a fly-on-the-wall book about life at Highfield Road, Dublin was then at the point of calling in his lawyers when the club did not accept his interpretation of his contract terms and he was fined pounds 40,000 by the club when he missed their Worthington Cup match at Luton last week, since when he has been training alone.”I’m relieved that it’s all over, but I don’t want to look back on that now. The Premiership leaders are due to meet Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal in consecutive home matches up to 12 December.”It is a challenge I’m looking forward to and the prospect of playing alongside the likes of Stan Collymore and Paul Merson is very exciting,” Dublin said.Dublin confessed to having endured some difficult times in the last week or so. “In part it was to appease Coventry, in part to make sure we could tie up the deal.”Dublin will be available to face Tottenham at home tomorrow at the start of a probably critical month for Villa. Warwickshire’s chief executive, Dennis Amiss, warned Lara he was putting his playing future at risk, while the county’s former stalwart Jack Bannister said that Lara “thinks he has become bigger than the game.”"As a cricketing superstar, he’s unique, and I’m afraid he has become almost a law unto himself,” Bannister said.England in Australia, page 29. Having had three bids of pounds 5.1m turned down, Villa obtained permission to talk to Dublin by raising their offer to pounds 5.75m, pounds 1m less than Coventry had accepted from Blackburn Rovers last week before the player turned down the chance to move to Ewood Park.
John Gregory, the Villa manager, had earlier indicated that he would not go above pounds 5.1m, hoping that Coventry would be forced to allow him to approach Dublin because of a clause in the player’s contract apparently entitling him to be notified of any bids of more than pounds 5m.Coventry, however, were determined to obtain the maximum value for a player who had been their top scorer for each of his four seasons at the club.”We had to meet Coventry half-way on the price,” Villa’s chairman, Doug Ellis, said.