Brian Lara and Carl Hooper were reinstated as West Indies' captain and vice-captain last night after a week of intense negotiations finally salvaged a groundbreaking tour of South Africa that had been on the brink of cancellation.

The bitter stand-off between the West Indies Cricket Board and Lara's rebel players, who had set up camp in a £150-anight Heathrow hotel during an escalating financial dispute, ended when the entire squad boarded the 9.45 p.m. flight to Johannesburg.

Lara and Hooper were unceremoniously sacked six days ago by an implacable West Indies Board, led by its autocratic president, the Jamaican lawyer Pat Rousseau, after they had sparked an impromptu strike by switching flights en route from Bangladesh to South Africa. But Rousseau last night conveniently depicted the whole affair as a "misunderstanding".

The settlement, thrashed out after another exhausting round of talks salvaged West Indies' first Test series in the Republic since South Africa's readmission to international cricket six years ago and the staging of multiracial elections.

The tour could be saved only if all involved saved face, and the agreement, tirelessly brokered by Ali Bacher, chief executive of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, achieved just that.

Exasperated as the dispute dragged on yesterday, Bacher took an increasingly central role. The talks involved Rousseau, the Jamaican captain Jimmy Adams, Barrie Gill, the agent handling Lara's affairs, and CollyerBristow, City solicitors.

Until yesterday virtually every positive development had emanated from South Africa. The insistence of Edward Griffiths, head of South Africa's state television network, that only a full-strength West Indies side would be acceptable to sponsors and advertisers scotched any possibility that the West Indies board might refuse to negotiate, instead sending a second-string squad.

The former South African wicketkeeper Dave Richardson, head of a sports marketing company, also conjured up extra sponsorship, from a "West Indies company based in South Africa", which promised to leave more room for negotiation.

So the tour has been saved, but the antics of the past week do not reflect well on West Indies' senior players, their newly-constituted Players' Association or the board.