If the troubled tour finally does go ahead, the next match on the original itinerary is a friendly in the black township of Soweto on Wednesday.

The rebel players remained in their London hotel today debating whether to accept the latest proposal from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) over a pay and conditions dispute.

A delegation headed by Courtney Walsh was due to meet WICB president Pat Rosseau and other officials at 1030 hrs (1700 hrs IST) for further negotiations but after two hours there was still no sign of the players.``They, (the players) are creating a major problem,'' Rosseau said.

After 7-1/2 hours of talks yesterday, Walsh said that negotiations were still continuing.

``Negotiations are still going on,'' he said. ``We will be having further meetings tonight and tomorrow morning. I'm going back to my hotel to talk tothe rest of the players.''

After the discussions in the team's hotel near Heathrow, Walsh returned with Brian Lara, Carl Hooper and Jimmy Adams for further discussions with the WICB which finally broke up at the wee hours today.

Bacher expressed optimism that the tour would go ahead.

``I expect to be returning home tonight and I am sure the West Indian players will be with me on the plane,'' he said.