``It is such an important tour we hope it comes off because we're all looking forward to it,'' Lloyd said before the team were taken to their Johannesburg hotel at the start of the West Indies first official tour of South Africa.

``We had a few meetings and I thought everything was fine. We were in Bangkok (intransit) when this happened,'' he added.

Lloyd said he had not been in contact with Lara since the Wills ICC knock-out tournament in Bangladesh over the weekend.

''Whether the tour goes on, with or without Lara, would be entirely up to the West Indies Board,'' he said.

Both South Africa's players and Lloyd's depleted party arrived in Johannesburg from Dhaka where the two teams contested the final of the Wills International Cup on Sunday. South Africa won the match by four wickets.

South Africa's captain Hansie Cronje was clearly surprised at the development.

``We had a dinner with them (the West Indies team) the night after the final and nothing was mentioned about any financial issues. From what we could gather they were all coming and the first I heard about it was this morning,'' Cronje said.

Cronje pointed out that his men had been confronted with a similar situation at the start of their tour of Australia last year, but in the end the dispute was resolved.

''Obviously we would prefer to play a full-strength West Indian side, but whatever happens we have got to remain focused on what we are doing and not allow ourselves to be sidetracked by what's happening in their camp,'' he said.