JOHN Dyson, the former Australian Test opener who had to face the most hostile bowling attack in world cricket, is heading back to the Caribbean with an equally tough charter as new coach of the battling West Indies cricket team.
Dyson, the 53-year-old former Sutherland junior from Oyster
Bay, succeeds fellow Sutherland Shire cricketer David Moore, who was coach on a temporary basis after Bennett King quit in March following the team's dismal World Cup campaign on home turf.
``It is a tough assignment but I'm hoping I can harness some of the potential and outstanding talent that lies in this [West Indies] team,'' said Dyson, who beat fellow Australian Dav Whatmore for the position.
Dyson's name is synonymous with Australian and West Indian clashes. The NSW Education Department employee and former school teacher is best remembered for his ``catch of the century'' at the SCG on January 5, 1982. A ball smashed by the Windies batsman Sylvester Clarke was caught by Dyson running backwards in the outfield, over his head and at a 45-degree angle to the ground.
He will also be remembered for his batting heroics against Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Andy Roberts, Malcom Marshall and Colin Croft, who all championed the use of fast, rising balls at the body.
``It wasn't so much the number of bouncers we faced, but the fact their fast bowling was so damn accurate, like Glenn McGrath was for Australia,'' Dyson said. And he regularly faced four fast bowlers in Tests against the West Indies!
Dyson played 30 Tests and 29 one-dayers for Australia between 1977 and 1984, and coached Sri Lanka for nearly two years from 2003, before the Government sacked that country's cricket board.
He played grade cricket for Sutherland for two decades and, in first-class matches, he scored nearly 10,000 runs at an average of 40.
Dyson's latest tour had nothing to do with cricket it was to Calvary, Canada, with the shire's Endeavour Harmony Choir; his wife Kaye is a member.
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