On November 5, 1998, West Indies' touring squad — heading to South Africa for their first post-apartheid tour — refused to board the connecting flight from London to Johannesburg. Captain Brian Lara and vice-captain Carl Hooper led nine players in a stand-off with the West Indies Cricket Board over allowances and tour fees. The team holed up at Heathrow's Excelsior Hotel for almost a week. The board sacked Lara and Hooper, then reinstated them, and the squad arrived in South Africa demoralised and unprepared. They lost the Test series 5-0.
West Indies cricket was in financial decline through the 1990s, with falling Test gates and TV revenue. Players' pay had not kept pace with the Australian, English or Indian boards. The 1998-99 South Africa tour was bookended by a critical Cable & Wireless sponsorship dispute, which the players believed was being used by the WICB as leverage against them.
Squad assembled at Heathrow on November 4, 1998. Players had drafted a list of demands. Tour manager Clive Lloyd had only just taken the role and lacked the standing to mediate.
The tour was historic: West Indies' first to South Africa since the end of apartheid, and a tour South Africa had been awaiting since 1991. The squad assembled at London Heathrow on November 4, 1998 for the connecting flight to Johannesburg. During the stopover, captain Brian Lara called a players' meeting. The team had been negotiating for months with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) over tour fees, daily allowances, and a sponsorship dispute with Cable & Wireless. Lara informed tour manager Clive Lloyd — newly appointed and caught between sides — that the team would not be flying to South Africa. The players checked into the Excelsior Hotel and refused to board further connections. WICB chairman Pat Rousseau initially fired Lara and Hooper from the captaincy on November 6 and replaced them with Courtney Walsh. The players responded by demanding the captains' reinstatement and the original 16-man squad. Nelson Mandela personally telephoned Lara to ask the team to come (West Indies later said the call did not happen as widely reported). After five days of stand-off and direct WICB-player negotiations in London, an agreement was reached. Lara and Hooper were reinstated. The squad flew to Johannesburg on November 11, a week behind schedule. They arrived shattered. Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock and Jacques Kallis tore through them: West Indies lost the five-Test series 5-0 — their first 5-0 defeat in any series — and the ODIs 6-1.
Nov 4: squad arrives at Heathrow
Nov 5: Lara informs Lloyd the team will not board
Nov 6: WICB sacks Lara and Hooper; appoints Walsh
Nov 7-10: stand-off at Excelsior Hotel; WICB officials fly to London
Nov 10: agreement reached — Lara and Hooper reinstated
Nov 11: squad flies to Johannesburg
Five-Test series: 0-5 to South Africa (West Indies' first 5-0 ever)
Mid-1998
Cable & Wireless sponsorship-pay dispute begins.
Nov 4, 1998
Squad arrives at Heathrow; tour to SA imminent.
Nov 5, 1998
Lara informs Lloyd of refusal to board.
Nov 6, 1998
WICB sacks Lara and Hooper; appoints Walsh.
Nov 7-10
Stand-off at the Excelsior Hotel, Heathrow.
Nov 11, 1998
Squad flies to Johannesburg with original captains restored.
Nov-March 1999
Series lost 5-0 in Tests; 6-1 in ODIs.
“Sixteen years ago I was the captain of the West Indies team which almost didn't tour. By the time we got here, we were already mentally destroyed. We robbed the South African players and public of a competitive Test series.”
“I was caught in the middle. I had been the captain who beat Australia. Now I was the manager and my players wouldn't board the plane.”
Lara was retained as captain but lost authority. He was sacked after the 1999 Australia ODI series, returned for the home Tests against Australia in 1999 (where he made 153 not out at Bridgetown), and resigned the captaincy permanently in 2000. The WICB was widely criticised for its handling. Brian Lara apologised publicly in 2014, calling it 'a moment we owed South Africa better.' Mike Procter, then South African coach, said his side were robbed of a competitive tour.
The most damaging players-versus-board dispute in cricket's modern history. Both sides emerged worse. Lara's captaincy never recovered; the WICB's authority was permanently undermined.
The 1998 strike is the bookend of West Indies' steady 1990s decline. Combined with the 1995 Sabina Park loss to Australia and the simultaneous loss of fast-bowling depth, it marks the moment West Indies cricket transitioned from declining superpower to genuine struggler. Player-board friction has continued to shape Caribbean cricket ever since.
England
1932-08-12
In August 1932 the MCC selectors confirmed Douglas Jardine as England's captain for the 1932-33 tour of Australia, a decision contested at the highest levels of English cricket and one that — combined with Plum Warner's appointment as tour manager — would set the conditions for the Bodyline series.
England
1934-03-21
On 21 March 1934 Douglas Jardine wrote to The Cricketer that he had 'neither the desire nor the intention' of playing in the upcoming home Ashes series. The announcement, taken as a quiet resignation, removed the architect of Bodyline from the field before Australia returned to England — a precondition Australia's Board had implicitly demanded.
England / Gloucestershire
1937-11-15
In November 1937 Wally Hammond — the leading professional batsman of his era — was accepted by MCC as an amateur, opening the door to the England captaincy he received six months later for the 1938 Ashes. The change crystallised inter-war debates about the amateur-professional divide and the unwritten rule that England's captain be amateur.