‘Graveyard’ pitches under fire after dull Ashes draw
Cricket officials have begun a review of a drop-in MCG pitch described as a ‘‘bowlers’ graveyard’’ in a bid to ensure the flat deck offered up during the Boxing Day test is not repeated.
While there had only been one draw in the past 19 tests heading into the latest Ashes battle, the lack of life in the pitches used in recent years, not to mention the three draws in the Sheffield Shield this season, has raised concerns about the impact on the game, and spectators.
The lack of pace during the fourth test which ended in a draw yesterday meant there was little assistance for the fast bowlers, while batting was also hard work.
Australian skipper Steve Smith spent more than six hours at the crease on the way to his third ton of the series, while Mitch Marsh crawled his way to 29 not out off 166 balls.
Australian coach Darren Lehmann and counterpart Trevor Bayliss have said they had hoped for a quicker deck, while England spearhead James Anderson said fans would suffer because of the lack of action.
Former Australian batsman Dean Jones labelled the pitch a ‘‘bowlers’ graveyard’’ while former England captain Geoff Boycott has said a ‘‘timeless test could be played on
You want the pitch to break up, bring more players into the game, chasing runs or defending gets harder as the game goes on. Cricket Victoria chief executive Tony Dodemaide
this pitch and even then I am sure you would get a result’’.
Cricket Victoria chief executive Tony Dodemaide yesterday said the not pitch, which looked more like a day two deck, was not what was required.
‘‘I think they are some of the first installed there. We are still learning about the technology obviously but, for mine, I think we would be aiming for more variation, particularly as the game goes on,’’ he said on ABC Radio.
‘‘You want the pitch to break up, bring more players into the game, chasing runs or defending gets harder as the game goes on. I think these ones [pitches] are getting better and better, they are not breaking up. We need to talk about it, certainly.
‘‘I stand to be corrected but if these are the original pitches that came into the ground, then they are probably over 10, nearly 15 years old now, and it might be the lifespan of a particular drop-in pitch might be shorter than we saw originally for the pitches that were in all year round.
‘‘It might well be that we need to dig them out every so often and start again. Just that sweet spot for a pitch might be younger than what we are used to in a normal pitch.’’
The modern-day decks are nurtured off site and dropped into the MCG at the start of the cricket season. Dodemaide said discussions with the Melbourne Cricket Club, which hires the curator, have ‘‘gone up a gear’’, and acknowledged the three Shield draws this season. CA chief executive James Sutherland said this week quality pitches were ‘‘incredibly important to the future of test cricket’’.
More than 88,000 fans showed up on Boxing Day, but thousands left disappointed midway through the final session because of a lack of contest between bat and ball. Australia limped to 244-3 by stumps on day one.
This prompted Anderson to declare: ‘‘People want to see entertaining cricket, especially in an iconic test match like the Boxing Day test match at the MCG. I know it wasn’t exciting to watch.’’
The Age