West Indies coach John Dyson wanted a training camp before the Abu Dhabi trip. - File

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad(CMC): WEST INDIES head coach John Dyson has lamented his side's lack of preparation for the upcoming tour of Abu Dhabi and has expressed frustration at the lack of support from the region's cricket board, for staging pre-series training camps.

"We have not prepared well at all for the upcoming tour of Abu Dhabi. We wanted a camp to be held but that was not possible and hence we go to Abu Dhabi and have two days there before we take on Pakistan in the first limited overs match," said the Australian official who was appointed to the post in October last year.

"This is not the ideal preparation for such a tour and we are hoping that the players who were with the Stanford Superstars had a good work out at the camp and those other players who were not in that camp, we hope that they were doing their work and will be ready for such a tour."

First action

The West Indies left yesterday for a three-match one-day international series against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi, which bowls off next Wednesday.

The tournament will be the first action for the West Indies since their series against Australia in the Caribbean ended in July earlier this year.

Dyson said staging camps for the regional team had been a problem since his arrival in the Caribbean.

"We have been requesting certain camps from the West Indies Cricket Board and for some reason we have not been getting these camps at all," Dyson complained. "Having a camp prior to a tournament is very essential in conditioning your players for the task ahead. I think that these four-day and one week camps we have been staging are not enough for our players and we need to have at least a two-week camp prior to a Test and one day series."

Dyson, who recently completed a two-day coaching stint at the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board Academy, also knocked the six-week preparatory camp staged in Antigua for the Stanford Superstars.

Crucial preparation

"I think that having a six-week camp ahead of the Twenty20 match was an overkill for the game that was required to play," he noted.

There has been praise from around the region for the camp, however, with many pundits contending it was crucial to the Stanford Superstars' performance and their capture of the winner-take-all US$20 million match against England on November 1.