NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) - Viv Richards blames West Indies cricket officials for the recent sponsorship row in the build-up to the home Test series against South Africa.

“Certain individuals in the board must leave now rather than be pushed,” the former West Indies batting great told reporters at a New Delhi celebrity golf event, yesterday.

Record-breaking batsman Brian Lara and six other players were omitted for the drawn first Test in Georgetown because of the dispute.

The disagreement was put on hold when Cable & Wireless, whose individual sponsorship of the seven players rankled main team sponsor Digicel, agreed to conditionally suspend their deals with the players.

Lara scored 196 on his return in the second Test in Port of Spain although South Africa went on to win to take a 1-0 lead in the four-Test series.

He added another magnificent 176 on Thursday’s opening day of the third Barbados Test to pull his team out of early trouble.

Richards regretted that Lara’s prolific scoring was not leading to more victories.

“I would like to think if I score a century my team would benefit,” he said. “The saddest part of Lara’s career is, his runs scored never quite reflect the wins.”

Richards predicted that Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi or India’s Virender Sehwag could break his record for the fastest Test hundred, which he hit off 56 balls against England in 1986.

“You have got guys like Sehwag and Afridi,” he said. “On a given day, it can be broken.”

The 25-year-old Afridi holds the record for the fastest one-day hundred, off 37 balls. Last week, he tied Lara’s record for the second fastest effort with a 45-ball hundred during Pakistan’s 4-2 series victory in India.

Richards also said Afridi should aim to shed his one-day tag.

“From a very young age, Afridi was called a one-day player,” he said. “He himself, when he looks back at his career, will see that as a low point in his career.

“Being a swashbuckling one-day cricketer, that doesn’t do any justice to his talent.”

Afridi has aggregated 4 567 one-day runs from 205 games with a strike rate of 107.43, but the all-out aggression has restricted his Test career to just 17 appearances since his debut in 1998.