John Dyson (born 11 June 1954) is an Australian former international cricketer (batsman) who is now a cricket coach, most recently in charge of the West Indies.
He played 30 Test matches and 29 One Day Internationals for Australia between 1977 and 1984. He did not enjoy as much success at the international level as he did at the first class level. In first-class matches, he scored nearly 10,000 runs at an average of 40. Dyson is probably best remembered for his "catch of the century" at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1982, when he caught Sylvester Clarke in the outfield, over his head, at a 45-degree angle to the ground, running backwards.
Dyson participated in two "rebel tours" of South Africa in 1985–86 and 1986–87 in defiance of the international sporting boycott of the apartheid state, scoring over 1,000 runs. He played soccer as a goalkeeper in the Sutherland Shire (Cronulla RSL) and was a member of the side that won the Dallimore Competition and runners-up in the NSW Amateur Cup final. He was a team member of the Como West Junior Soccer Club (Sutherland Shire) successful 18A, 1971 Champion of Champion team, progressed to play in Sutherland and St. George Grade and was also selected in the N.S.W. U20 squad.
On 21 October 2007 he was named as coach of the West Indies having previously coached Sri Lanka from 2003 to 2005. On 20 March 2009 he incorrectly called the West Indies in because of bad light after 46.2 overs of an ODI against England. His decision to do so was based on a faulty D/L calculation because of a fall of wicket on the second ball of the 47th over, thereby causing his team to lose a match it had a good chance of winning.
He was sacked as the coach of the West Indies on 13 August 2009 shortly before the team was due to play in the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa.
In January 2024, Dyson was inducted in the New South Wales hall of fame.
In 1975–76, Dyson was made NSW 12th man for a game against the touring West Indies side. He then scored 159 for NSW Colts against Victorian Colts. This led to Dyson being selected to make his first class debut, for NSW against Qld. He played three first class games that summer with a high score of 28 before being dropped for Graeme Hughes. Ian Chappell claimed when Dyson "first played for NSW he was labelled a 'strokeless wonder' and then dropped after a spate of low and slow scoring."
In 1976-77 Dyson scored 342 first class runs at 42.75, including a century against Tasmania.
The loss of many senior Australian players to World Series Cricket in 1977 saw spots open up in the Australian test team. Dyson attracted attention early in the 1977–78 season with a man of the match innings against Queensland in a Gillette Cup semi final. He followed it with innings of 102 off 366 balls for NSW against WA and scores of 65 against the touring Indians and 103 against Victoria.
Australia were struggling to find experienced in-form opening batters. Alan Turner, a former test opener, played so badly that season he ended up retiring from cricket. The openers chosen for the first test were Paul Hibbert and Gary Cosier, both of whom failed. Hibbert was dropped for the second test (after having only been given one game) and was replaced by John Dyson, who had made 355 runs at 59 that summer, although batting at three.
In his test debut, Dyson made 53 runs in the first innings, taking part in a crucial partnership of 84 with captain Bob Simpson. These runs would prove crucial in a narrow Australian victory.
Dyson was kept in the Australian side for the next two tests. He scored 0 and 12 in the third test and 26 and 6 and the fourth, with Australia losing both games. Dyson was dropped from the side for the fifth test and was not picked on the subsequent tour of the West Indies. Ian Chappell later wrote he felt it was "strange" Dyson was picked to play India but overlooked for the West Indies tour as "most players considered Dyson a poor player of spin – in which the Indians are strong – but a good player of fast bowling – in which the Caribbeans are of course devastating."
That summer Dyson became the first known Sydney player to wear a helmet playing grade cricket.
Dyson spent the 1978 Australian winter playing for Haslingden in the Lancashire League.
Dyson was unable to force his way back into the test team during the 1978–79 summer, although Bob Simpson felt he was the best opening batsman in Australia after Graeme Wood. Dyson was dropped from the state side early on for a Gillette Cup game but bounced back to make 57 in a districts game.
Dyson was back in the state side replacing Ron Crippin. He scored an impressive 67 against the touring English.
He went on to score 619 runs at 44.21 including a top score of 197 against Tasmania. However Australian selectors preferred Andrew Hilditch.
Dyson scored 55 in a state trial game but was overlooked by NSW in favor of Trevor Chappell. This was controversial because it was felt the selectors had bias towards World Series players. However Dyson soon forced his way back into the side and had a reasonably successful season scoring 729 first class runs at 42, and scoring a century for Randwick in the Sydney Club final.