A contract dispute between several senior West Indies players and their national cricket board delayed the start of a three-week training camp in Barbados for the squad to tour Australia early next year.

The pre-tournament camp was scheduled to begin on Monday but has been put back until Wednesday following protracted negotiations between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and 16 disgruntled squad members.

The row centres mainly over official insistence that players cannot without prior approval endorse rival companies to the WICB's main sponsor.

"We had to rearrange flights because obviously original arrangements that were made had to be put on hold and we now have to put them back in place," WICB chief executive Roger Braithwaite said on the board's website.

Nine of the 25 squad members signed the player contracts and they have already arrived in Barbados.

Brian Lara, Mervyn Dillon, Chris Gayle, Courtney Brown and Corey Collymore were among those who initially refused the invitation to join the training camp.

However progress was made in the contract row during a six-hour meeting between the parties last week, mediated by the Prime Ministers of Grenada and Barbados.

Both parties agreed to submit briefs by Friday with a view to an independent adjudicator resolving the matter.

West Indies are scheduled to join hosts Australia and Pakistan in a triangular series to be played in January and February next year.

West Indies squad: Ian Bradshaw, Dwayne Bravo, Courtney Brown, Deighton Butler, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Pedro Collins, Corey Collymore, Mervyn Dillon, Narsingh Deonarine, Sherwin Ganga, Darren Ganga, Chris Gayle, Ryan Hinds, Wavell Hinds, Reon King, Brian Lara, Xavier Marshall, Runako Morton, Ricardo Powell, Dinesh Ramdin, Darren Sammy, Marlon Samuels, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Devon Smith and Dwight Washington.