BRIDGETOWN, June 14: West Indies coach John Dyson feels worn down by criticism of his team and said the players were paying the price for a relatively weaker domestic competition. West Indies were bowled out for 216 in their reply to Australia’s first innings total of 251 and with the tourists 35-0 at the close, Dyson’s men trail by 70 runs.

Having faced a series of critical comments from local media at a post-match news conference, Dyson said he was weary of the scepticism surrounding his team.

“I must admit there is a lot of negative talk all the time about the team. It does wear you down after a while,” he said.

“I think the team does some very good things. I’ve said many times before that I think the team work hard. I think the team play some very good cricket. There are times we play some ordinary cricket as well — most teams do.”

West Indies lost the first Test in Jamaica, despite pushing the Australian’s hard, and then drew the second Test in Antigua.

In the current Test they bowled well before a poor batting display saved, in part at least, by another fine Shivnarine Chanderpaul innings (79 not out).

“In this particular series, considering a lot of people thought that the Australians were going to come in and take the series without any opposition at all and take it 3-0, I think the guys have done a pretty good job,” he said.

“Having said all that, we’ve played a couple of poor sessions. That’s something that you can’t turn around in five seconds. This is one of the Caribbean conflicts that I have – people aren’t magicians.”—Reuters