Bridgetown: Brian Lara apologised over the public address system at the Carlton Club for his reaction to a disputed dismissal the day before in a Caribbean Cricket Championship match.

Lara, who scored 54 on the first day of Trinidad and Tobago’s Carib Beer Cup match with Barbados, angrily slapped a plastic chair with his bat as he made his way into the pavilion after being given out on Friday.

“I just want to apologise publicly for my behaviour yesterday (Friday),” Lara announced to a few hundred spectators before play began on the second day. “Sorry about that.”

The West Indies star, who has a reputation worldwide of walking off when he knows he is out, had been given out to a disputed catch low down at cover off his international teammate Ian Bradshaw.

Match referee Carlyle Carter said he spoke to both Lara and Trinidad’s management about the incident but took no further action.

“On his dismissal on entering the pavilion, he (Lara) was a bit indiscreet in his behaviour,” Carter said.

Meanwhile, more than 100 West Indies cricket players will be contracted to work on their game year-round in a new development plan designed to improve the national team’s results.

The plan, prepared by West Indies coach Bennett King and team operations manager Tony Howard, was approved by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

The main element will involve 114 players from the six territorial teams in the Caribbean working all year in a semi-professional capacity, WICB chief executive Roger Brathwaite said on Friday.

He added the WICB and national coaches want to prepare players who are capable of performing successfully at first-class and international level, and incorporate year-round training in all the major regions: Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and Windward Islands.

West Indies has slumped to eighth spot in the 10-team Test rankings, and its record is such that it will remain eighth even if it was to sweep all three Tests in the upcoming series in New Zealand. West Indies haven’t won a series against anyone ranked above it since 2002, at home against India. They won one Test out of 11 in 2005.