- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
West Indies coach John Dyson admits the constant “negativity” from outside his team was beginning to take a toll after again being asked to defend his players performances following the second day of the third Test against Australia.
The eighth-ranked Windies have surprised many by challenging Ricky Ponting’s world champions for much of their three-Test series, but despite still being in the hunt to square the series, continue to face criticism from former players and parts of the local media.
The Windies world domination of the 1980s and early 90s still casts a massive shadow over the current crop of cricketers in the region.
But while Dyson’s team appear on the rise after a promising past six months, many remain unconvinced and are more than willing to air their doubts and criticise.
“I must admit there is a lot of negative talk all the time about the team,” Dyson said.
“It does wear you down after a while.
“I think the team has done some very good things. I’ve said many times before that I think the team has worked hard and played some very good cricket.
“There are times we play some ordinary cricket as well – most teams do.
“But in this particular series – considering a lot of people thought that the Australians were going to come in and take the series without any opposition at all and take it 3-0 – I think the guys have done a pretty good job.”
Today, the coach was forced to defend his batsman after the Windies collapsed to be all out 216 after earlier wrapping up Australia’s first innings for 251.
While there were some soft dismissals, others like skipper Chris Gayle fell to wonderful catches – in his case from Beau Casson – off full-blooded shots.
“It’s a very, very fine line isn’t it, you want players to be aggressive, particularly on wickets that offer a bit of pace and bounce,” Dyson said.
“You want them to play their shots and you applaud like crazy when it comes off, as everybody else does.
“But on that fine line where it doesn’t come off, you want to term it throwing it away, I don’t quite follow that … (Gayle hits it) two inches further to the right and you’d be jumping up and down clapping, what a great shot.”
Shivnarine Chanderpaul was again the shining light, with his unbeaten 79 taking him to 392 runs for the series at the incredible average of 196.
He has now scored 261 runs without being dismissed.
But despite again running out of partners during yet another lower order collapse, Dyson insisted Chanderpaul would not bat above his preferred No.5 spot.
“We’ve talked about that before (Chanderpaul batting at four), but Shiv would prefer to stay at No.5,” Dyson said.
“When you’ve got a player performing the way he is at the moment, and has done for some time now, we will try and accommodate as best we can his wishes to keep him in that frame of mind, and keep him in that vein of scoring that he’s in.”
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.