Lara will miss the one-day series in Australia

West Indies captain Brian Lara and other players could miss the one-day series in Australia in a contracts row.

The West Indies Cricket Board said its selectors were meeting again to pick another squad for the January series.

Originally 25 players were named in the squad which is meeting on Monday but only nine have signed acceptance forms.

The main dispute involves players who have deals with Cable and Wireless, a rival to Digicel, who recently signed a lucrative sponsorship deal with WICB.

Lara, along with others thought to include Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle, is said to have refused to sign the contracts.

The WICB has declined to name the nine who have signed, but reports suggest batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul is the senior player among them.

A Board spokesman said: "The players who did not accept the invitation ruled themselves out of consideration for this tour.

"This does not prevent them from being considered in the future should they merit inclusion."

The cricket board had been locked in talks with the players but said they were barred from endorsing "a competitor of a WICB major sponsor unless he has a pre-existing agreement with such a competitor that was approved in writing by the WICB."

A WICB spokesman played down the fact a number of top players could miss the tour against world champions Australia.