The historic tour that might never be was still in the balance last night as the West Indies team pondered whether they should tour South Africa and, if so, for how much money?

A day of intense negotiation saw Ali Bacher, president of the United Cricket Board of South Africa, jet into London with a personal letter from president Nelson Mandela to each of the 16 West Indies team members assuring them that they would be welcome in the country and that he was personally looking forward to meeting them.

Bacher last night presented the letters to Courtney Walsh, head of the players' association which is behind the revolt over tour payments, which in turn led to the sacking this week of the captain Brian Lara and vice-captain Carl Hooper.

Bacher said that Walsh had agreed to meet Clive Lloyd, the West Indies tour manager, who flew into London from South Africa yesterday morning to help settle the dispute, and Joel Garner, who arrived from Dakar and is a member of the West Indies Cricket Board. The meeting is likely to take place today.

The future of West Indies cricket and the politically significant tour is being played out in the unlikely setting of two hotels opposite Heathrow Airport.

The original nine players who refused to tour were joined at the Excelsior Hotel yesterday by the remaining seven members of the team, who arrived in London from South Africa yesterday morning.

The Radison Edwardian Hotel is home to the cricketing conciliators, namely Bacher, Lloyd and Garner, who know that if they are to save the tour then the West Indies cricket authorities may have to eat a large slice of humble pie as well as come up with extra money. Clutching the letters from Mandela, Bacher strolled across the no man's land between the two hotels knowing that he was playing a trump card. It appeared to have little impact on Walsh, however. He kept Bacher waiting for just over an hour before he casually strolled into the hotel lobby to collect the letters.

The South African cricket authorities see the tour as an ideal opportunity to spread the game among black youngsters, who tend to favour football over cricket. Lara in particular is hero-worshipped in South Africa.

Bacher spent most of yesterday afternoon locked in discussions with Lloyd and Garner and said that they had been working out a strategy for today's meeting. The players are angry about the tour fees, reported to be between £10,000 and £32,000 depending on seniority.

Emerging from his meeting with Lloyd and Garner, Bacher was adamant that the South African Cricket Board had not offered to pay any extra money to the players to persuade them to tour the country.

Both sides agree, however, that the dispute needs to be settled as soon as possible to avoid further embarrassment to West Indies cricket. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the players' demands, the on-off saga of the tour is fast turning into a public relations disaster for both the players and their sport's governing body.

Caribbean political leaders have stressed the urgency of finding a solution, foremost among them Kenny Anthony, the St Lucia prime minister and chairman of Caricom, the Caribbean states' political umbrella body.