John Dyson was sacked yesterday from the most hopeless job in international cricket.
In a terse announcement, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), whose long-running disputes with the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) over contracts and other issues have long since made the position of head coaches virtually impossible, stated that its executive committee, at a meeting on Wednesday, decided to dismiss the services of the 58-year-old former Australian Test batsman “with immediate effect”.
He is the fifth head coach in the past ten years of continuing West Indies’ decline on the field and mismanagement off it.
The latest upheaval follows closely on the last minute withdrawal of the originally selected players for the home series against Bangladesh and their replacement with a hurriedly assembled, severely weakened makeshift team.
The West Indies went into the first Test with seven players on debut, more than at any time since their inaugural Test in England in 1928. Their chances were further diminished by pitches in Tests and ODIs in St. Vincent, Grenada, Dominica and St. Kitts that favoured Bangladesh’s strength in spin bowling.
The upshot was defeat in both Tests and all three ODIs before gaining a consolation win in the solitary Twenty20 International against a team that had previously won only one of its 59 Tests.
Although that was the nadir of his tenure, there was one incident for which Dyson will always be negatively remembered.
In the first ODI of the five-match series against England in Guyana in March, he misread the calculations of the Duckworth/Lewis system when umpires Aleem Dar and Clyde Duncan offered the West Indies batsmen the option of ending the match because of bad light.
Dyson waved not out batsman Darren Sammy off the field, believing the match was won. In fact, victory was England’s by one run.
“Die-Soon” was one newspaper headline next day. It has taken five months to prove prophetic.
Dyson was appointed in October 2007 on a three-year contract to succeed fellow Australian Bennett King who quit five months earlier following the World Cup tournament in the Caribbean.
King was also in charge in 2005 when the West Indies had to send a second-string team to Sri Lanka after a similar strike over contracts by the chosen, leading players.
The WICB gave no reason for Dyson’s removal but said assistant coach David Williams, the former Trinidad and Tobago and West Indies wicket-keeper, would temporarily fill the post for the ICC Champions Trophy tournament in South Africa September 22 to October 5.
It also announced that “in view of the special circumstances pertaining to this tour”, Lance Gibbs, 74, the former Guyana and West Indies off-spinner and one-time Test cricket’s leading wicket-taker, would be team manager in place of Omar Khan and that chairman of selectors Clyde Butts, also former Guyana and West Indies off-spinner, would accompany the team to South Africa.
Gibbs previously managed West Indies teams to Pakistan and England in the early 1990s, a position he also held with the Stanford Superstars in the 20/20 for $20 million match against England last November 1.
The media release stated that Khan “has been temporarily assigned to the preparation and management” of the West Indies under-19 team for the ICC’s Youth World Cup in New Zealand next January. He told a Trinidad radio station yesterday that he first heard the news on its broadcast. Dyson, who opened the batting for Australia in 10 Tests between 1977 and 1984, was head coach of Sri Lanka from 2003 before coming to the West Indies’ job.
Under him and captain Chris Gayle, the West Indies were on an upward swing before the latest row between the WICB and the WIPA undermined the cricket on the brief, belatedly arranged tour of England last April and May where an obviously disinterested team were heavily beaten in both Tests and ODIs.
Before then, the West Indies won their first Test in South Africa in December 2007 before losing the series 2-1 and the ODIs 5-0.
They shared a Test series with Sri Lanka 1-1 at home and won the ODIs 2-0, pressed Australia in the subsequent Test series, losing 2-0 with one drawn, drew both Tests in New Zealand last December and regained the Wisden Trophy with a hard-fought 1-0 triumph over England in the Caribbean in February and March before England immediately won it back in the chill of the English spring.
THE DYSON DOSSIER
TEST RECORD (played-won-lost-drawn) (h)* Home
South Africa, 2007-08 (a): 3-1-2-0.
Sri Lanka, 2008 (h): 2-1-1-0.
Australia, 2008 (h): 3-0-2-1.
New Zealand, 2008-09 (a): 2-0-0-2.
England, 2009 (h): 5-1-0-4.
England, 2009 (a): 2-0-2-0.
Bangaldesh, 2009 (h): 2-0-2-0.
TOTAL: 19-3-9-7.
ODI RECORD (played-won-lost-no result)
South Africa, 2007-08 (a): 5-0-5-0-.
Sri Lanka, 2008 (h): 3-2-0-1.
Australia, 2008 (h): 5-0-5-0.
Canada, 2008 (a): 3-3-0-0.
Pakistan, 2008 (a): 3-0-3-0.
New Zealand, 2008-09 (a): 5-1-2-2.
England, 2009 (h): 5-2-3-0.
England, 2009 (a): 2-0-2-0.
India, 2009 (h): 4-1-2-1.
Bangladesh, 2009 (h): 3-0-3-0.
TOTAL: 38-9-25-4.
TWENTY20 INTERNATIONALS
South Africa, 2007-08 (a): 2-1-1-0.
Australia, 2008 (h): 1-1-0-0.
New Zealand, 2008-09 (a): 2-1-1-0.
England, 2009 (h): 1-1-0-0.
World Championship, 2009 (a): 5-3-2-0.
Bangladesh, 2009 (h): 1-1-0-0.
TOTAL: 12-8-4-0.
