West Indies coach John Dyson was left frustrated by the Grace Road pitch after the opening day of his side's first warm-up match.
Windies coach seeking rapid improvement
West Indies coach John Dyson was left frustrated by the Grace Road pitch after seeing his West Indies side denied the chance for some valuable batting practice in their opening warm-up match.
The tourists began their preparations for next month's first Test with a distinctly mixed first day against Leicestershire, although Dyson felt there were undoubtedly mitigating circumstances.
Things started well enough for the West Indies as they bowled Leicestershire out for a modest 182, but their batting line-up also struggled and finished the day on 80-4.
Opener Devon Smith and key man Ramnaresh Sarwan were amongst those to depart cheaply on a track that served up variable bounce from the off, leaving Dyson less than impressed.
"I don't think it's a great pitch," said former Australian batsman Dyson.
"It's an early-season wicket which looked like it was going to be a flat one, but there were too many balls which rolled along the ground.
"There was variable bounce and no-one has looked comfortable batting on it - I wouldn't call it a good cricket wicket.
"We had some balls from a very early stage that hit something and just rolled along the ground well wide of the keeper on both sides of the wicket, and there were other ones that pitched in the same spot and just sat up."
Benn on form
There was at least encouragement for Dyson in the shape of left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn who exploited the helpful pitch to finish with figures of 4-31.
However, despite being without the services of IPL players Chris Gayle, Fidel Edwards and also experienced duo Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Jerome Taylor, Dyson feels his team must improve quickly ahead of the forthcoming Test series with England which gets underway at Lord's on May 6.
"Our guys have had a couple of weeks off cricket and that's our first outing here in these conditions, but I'm not totally happy with the day's play," added Dyson.
"There are too many things that happened which we need to improve upon."
