It emerged that Adams cut two tendons in his finger when he sliced himself with a bread knife on the flight from London on Monday. The injury will take six weeks to heal. No replacement has been named.

The one-day 50 overs friendly against a Gauteng Invitation XI, comprising mostly black emerging young cricket stars ended in a deluge before the West Indies, batting first, could complete their innings. The tourists were 258 for 7 after 47 overs, with captain Brian Lara entertaining the crowd with a swashbuckling 65 off 60 balls that included 10 fours, and his deputy, Carl Hooper, notching up 60 runs not out in 84 balls.

The heavy rains washed out not only the match but also plans for President Nelson Mandela to arrive at the ground to greet the tourists. A presidential spokeswoman said the meeting would be rescheduled. The match had got off to a late start as the tourists waited for their kit to arrive. It had been left behind in the rush to leave London, and turned up at the same time as Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose, who had missed Monday's departure.

Lara and his team were greeted in Soweto by a brass band and crowds of cheering schoolchildren, despite the fact that cricket is struggling to make inroads among soccer-mad black youths.

The tour was to have kicked off on Tuesday with a match against a Nicky Oppenheimer XI but a pay dispute between the players, led by Lara and Hooper, and the West Indies Cricket Board, delayed the team's arrival in the country until Tuesday morning.

Press reports meanwhile said that United Cricket Board of South Africa managing director Ali Bacher had managed to delay by 20 minutes a Johannesburg-bound flight from London on Monday night to allow the West Indies to board.

Newspapers said Bacher, who played a mediating role in the dispute between the players and the cricket board, had prevailed on South African Airways to delay departure of its 9 pm flight after agreement was reached at 7.50 pm. The flight eventually departed at 9.20 pm.