Cricket: Styris puts Windies on block

Scott Styris

Scott Styris has lashed out at the West Indies' apparent disregard for injured players, saying their attitude flew in the face of common sense, never mind the spirit of the game.

Highlighting New Zealand's annoyance over several first-test incidents, Styris said yesterday it was time the tourists showed more consideration for players who had been struck in the head and reacted more quickly to the danger signs.

Styris, Nathan Astle, Brendon McCullum, Ramnaresh Sarwan and fieldsman Jamie How all received heavy jolts to the head during the opening test, and Astle was later confined to quarters after feeling nauseous and unwell.

The main thrust of Styris' concern was that the West Indies showed no interest in the welfare of himself or How after two sickening blows at Auckland, and that they seemed to delight in the spectacle of a felled batsman.

Styris was sconed by a Fidel Edwards bouncer in the second innings, mouthed off at the bowler after the next delivery, and threw away his wicket two overs later.

"There was a little bit of disappointment about the way they were laughing and joking after our guys were struck, which was what I mentioned to Fidel after I was hit," said Styris. "It's just a matter of checking out that you're fine and that you're okay.

"You want to play the game hard and you want to play it fair, but you also want to make sure that someone's not hurt - or at least that's the way we want to play it.

"We made sure Sarwan was okay after he got hit, but were pretty disappointed and grumpy about [batsmen Shiv] Chanderpaul and [Daren] Ganga after Jamie was struck. They eventually showed some concern, but we thought it was a little too late."

The issue of assisting hurt batsmen was raised during the Ashes series last year, when Justin Langer expressed his anger over the lack of concern shown by England after Ricky Ponting was struck by Steve Harmison.

However, Styris said there was no need for an international understanding on the subject because no one in their right mind would want it any other way.

"If you have any sense of empathy and consideration, you don't want to see anyone badly hurt," he said. "You want to try and get him out, you want to intimidate him so that you can get him out, but you don't want to see him carried off on a stretcher.

"Or at least we certainly don't, and I know Bondy [Shane Bond] doesn't - he's mentioned it before. If he does hit a guy, he's always looking to see if he's okay.

"If other teams are doing that, well and good, but I think it's more to do with common sense than an international understanding."

Styris, who propped up New Zealand's first innings at Auckland with 103, said New Zealand's aim in the second test starting tomorrow was to turn in a much-improved all-round game, and to address some of the more glaring issues.

"We were guilty of being a bit loose in that last test and eventually Ganga and Chris Gayle showed us how it was done," he said. "If we can bring a bit more patience to our game and not be in so much of a hurry, we can bat a lot longer than we did at Auckland.

"We want to basically put our foot on their throat and not take it off. At times we were guilty of letting them back in the game."