West Indies coach Phil Simmons has apologised to the New Zealand public and believes they should not be kicked out of the country after members of his team were caught flouting quarantine rules.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health revealed that members of the team repeatedly broke quarantine rules by groups mingling outside of allocated time slots and sharing food inside their quarantine facility at the Chateau on the Park in Christchurch.
Several incidents were captured on CCTV, while staff members also reported breaches and as a result, they've lost their training privileges for their remaining days in quarantine.
The team is close to finishing their mandatory 14-day quarantine and are awaiting their coronavirus test results, which are taken on day 12 of isolation.
The breach of rules has infuriated the public and in The AM Show's 'Question of the Day' which asks if the team should be sent home, 70 percent of the 2000 votes say yes.
But Simmons feels that punishment is "extreme" and insists the players who are at fault will be punished accordingly by Cricket West Indies.
Speaking to The AM Show, Simmons did apologise on behalf of his team and insists they will be more careful in the future.
"I have to apologise to the New Zealand public and the government who have allowed us to come here," he says. "It's embarrassing from our point of view.
"The important thing here is that all New Zealanders are safe and it's a priority for us to keep safe.
"If we felt that the players did something extreme - like trying to go over the fence - they would be on their way home. We're about to finish our investigation into it and punish the players who broke the rules.
"There are rules we all have to follow and they're not difficult to follow."
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield confirmed the team have lost their training privileges as a result of their actions and Simmons feels that is a huge setback for his team.
"It will be a huge setback," he says. "We were just getting to the levels that we would normally start at, but coming from no cricket, we had to start slower.
"Hopefully everybody tests negative and then we can move to Queenstown and ramp it up as quickly as possible because later in the week we have a training game ahead of the first match against the Blackcaps."
The tourists begin their campaign with two hit-outs against an NZ A side, before facing the Blackcaps in a T20 clash on November 27.
