West Indies Cricket Board President Pat Rousseau told a press conference there was no good explanation why Lara and Hooper failed to arrive in South Africa.

The players are angry over tour payments and travelled to London instead.

'Replacement soon'

He said a new captain and vice-captain will soon be chosen and the board is proceeding with the South African tour.

The board also imposed fines on seven other players of the 16-man squad who had, like Lara and Hooper, flown to London after a one-day tournament in Bangladesh instead of South Africa.

Rousseau was talking after a meeting between the WICB and the West Indies Players' Association.

Ali Bacher: "No individual is greater than the game"

Ali Bacher, managing director of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, said he had been informed of the decision by the West Indies' board late on Wednesday night.

He said the West Indies' tour of South Africa would go ahead despite the loss of the two star players.

He said: "It is a very serious decision by the West Indian board, and we support them 100%.

"It is a decision which shows that no individual is greater than the game."

Hooper: Off the team

Lara, Hooper and batsman Jimmy Adams were due to have attended the meeting in Antigua, but failed to show up.

Less than half of the West Indian squad has arrived in Johannesburg after the dispute broke out over fees for their first official test tour of South Africa.

Lara, 29, went into the record books as the highest scoring batsman in Test history when he chalked up 375 against England in Antigua in April 1994.

And after agreeing to join Warwickshire, he became the first player to score seven centuries in eight first-class innings in the summer of that year.