Arthur's arrogance irks Dyson
John Dyson seemed indignant and a little hurt as he mulled over Mickey Arthur's comments leading up to the second one-day international between his West Indies team and South Africa at Newlands today.
Arthur said on Wednesday that the South Africans would strive for a 15 percent improvement on their form in the first match of the series in Centurion on Sunday, which the home side won by six wickets.
Nothing wrong with that. But Arthur also said his team could "still churn out results" even if they did shamble into a "comfort zone".
That could be taken to mean Arthur felt South Africa could beat the Windies with one hand tied behind their backs, and a glowering Dyson was having none of that on Thursday.
"I'd be worried if we improved by 15 percent if I was him," Dyson snarked. "They've won tosses on bowler-friendly wickets," Dyson fumed. "It might have been totally different had we won the toss.
Prickly though he definitely was, Dyson forced himself to break away from his tirade long enough to spare a thought for the opposition.
"They have played good cricket, they've been quite impressive," he said. "But they've also been under pressure in both of those games. I don't think they did it that easily."
Graeme Smith needed no prompting to pick up that gauntlet.
"The respect will be there on the field tomorrow, but we would like to put in a performance that could show John and everyone else that we are streets ahead in terms of performance and the way we play."
Herschelle Gibbs, who missed Sunday's match for "personal reasons", will return to active duty today at the expense of Justin Ontong, who replaced him in Centurion.
The tough job of keeping that script unwritten falls to the West Indians. And, of course, to one crusty Australian.