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 pitched in the same spot and sat up."

Pleased Dyson

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.

Scores: Leicestershire 182 (Matthew Boyce 45, Wayne White 37 not out, Jim Allenby 28, Carl Crowe 21; Sulieman Benn 4-31, Andrew Richardson 3-46).

West Indies 80 for four (Devon Smith 24, Lendl Simmons 21 not out).

West Indies bowler Lionel Baker (left) celebrates with his teammates after taking the wicket of Leicestershire's Tom New during the first day of the three-day cricket tourist match between West Indies and Leicestershire County Cricket Club at the Grace Road ground yesterday. - AP