LEICESTER, England,  CMC – West Indies coach John Dyson has slammed the condition of the Grace Road pitch for West Indies opening match on their tour of England against Leicestershire yesterday.

West Indies, replying to Leicestershire’s first innings total of 182, reached 80 for four at the close on the opening day of the three-day match.

“I don’t think it’s a great pitch,” said Dyson. “It’s an early-season pitch 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 pitch.

“We had some balls from a very early stage that hit something and just rolled along the ground well wide of the wicketkeeper on both sides of the pitch, and there were other ones that pitch in the same spot and sit up.”

Earlier, Sulieman Benn and Andrew Richardson shared seven wickets which pleased Dyson.

“I thought [Benn] bowled well,” he said. “We found in the nets that the slower you bowl the more spin you got and he varied his pace well and it was good to see. 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. There are too many things that happened today which we need to improve upon.”

West Indies have two more tour matches against Essex and the England Lions, before the first Test at Lord’s, starting on May 6.

The second and final Test of the series is due to start at Durham’s Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street on May 14.

See story of game on Page 26