There was a time when a win to either Australia or New Zealand looked likely on this WACA pitch. Both teams were working hard and implementing their plans in a true contest between bat and ball.
But then the players concluded their warm-ups, got changed, lined up for the anthems and Tim Southee bowled the first ball of the match.
Of course, there are caveats. Australia’s fielders missed chances that they really, really needed to hang on to, and there was some ordinary bowling. Great bowling and fielding has a way of taking the pitch out of the equation.
Mark Craig has met two Australian Test grounds, and they have both hated him with the passion that makes you wonder if he offended them in a past life. By contrast, Australia’s batsmen have taken a liking to him.
New Zealand’s bowlers operated really well with a reverse-swinging old ball on Day 5. Several batsmen, especially David Warner and Ross Taylor, batted extremely well. Balls had to be changed at an almost heroically bad rate.
However, none of the caveats should be allowed to take away from the fact that the WACA pitch was far too flat. Any contrary protests deserve derision.
The ball did virtually nothing off the seam, save for when a small crack opened up in the later stages of the match, which meant batsmen could get away with using hard hands. Far from containing the type of pace and bounce Curtly Ambrose once used so effectively, balls died in mocking laughter in front of both slip cordons, before receiving a more permanent death when they were judged to be out of shape.
Once batsmen had finished de-ball shining, bowlers were pressed into an all too familiar chain gang service. It took exceptionally good spells or luck for bowlers to even look like taking even just one wicket.
The fact that flatter pitches have been a nationwide trend is why blaming drop-in pitches are something of a red herring. This is not an argument for pitches that go to the other extreme but consider this – if you were a neutral fan, which Tests in Australia would you definitely have wanted to attend with the benefit of hindsight since, say, 2000? Where both teams were consistently a chance of victory until the last ball of the match had been bowled.
In two such matches, 40 wickets were taken and there was never any hint of a declaration.
First, New Zealand’s nail-biting seven-run win against Australia at the Bellerive Oval in 2011. Second, Australia’s come-from-behind win in the 2010 New Year’s Test against Pakistan.
In neither match were bowlers punished for being bowlers by a horrendously flat pitch. In fact, both curators went too far the other way. I remember walking to the ground at the start of Day 2 of the Hobart match, an overcast day, with Australia 1-12 in response to New Zealand’s 150 and thinking, ‘New Zealand are actually on top here’.
There shouldn’t be any pitch in the world in which 150 is a par first innings score, although it is a lot more interesting than a pitch where the par score is 550. Otherwise, substandard bowlers can thrive, and the game would lose some of the attractions of batting and encourage too many batsmen whose primary purpose is to be a ball de-shiner.
What is needed is a fairer balance between bat and ball. Otherwise, fewer will be parting with their money to be at the ground and crucially, for the financial side of the game, fewer and fewer people will be likely to watch the matches on TV.
This could be true even for traditional fans of the game. Why would anyone bother parting with their money to watch a boringly bat-dominated Test, when they need not pay anything to watch a much more interesting if lesser quality Sheffield Shield match?
This is where day-night cricket could be a circuit-breaker. Pitches, in order to accommodate the pink ball, may have to have more grass on them. But even if they don’t, curators need to be given confidence that they won’t be punished if they provide a pitch that allows for a fair contest between bat and ball, only for substandard batting to lead to a three-day Test.
Otherwise, more Tests in Australia will be draws. And who would want to be a bowler then?
Don’t get your hopes up for a revival. But while there is no revival, it would also be unwise to be too optimistic in expecting more success in the subcontinent. While the IPL and the plethora of short-form cricket fills the void of playing different conditions somewhat, the chance to play on a wide variety of pitches, afforded to the great players of the Australian side in the 1990s and 2000s, is a major problem for Australian cricket.
The plurality of pitches in Australia, with the seaming and bouncy Gabba, the fastest pitch in the world WACA, the flat but spinning big late Adelaide, the traditional hard Melbourne pitch that often required grafting cricket, the spin-dominated SCG and the potential wildcard but normally flat Bellerive allowed for the flourishing of all of the arts of cricket.
Yet that has been gone for some time now.
It might be asking too much to get it back, but bowlers deserve better than the Test pitches that they currently have to toil on.
In the movie Holes, the juvenile prisoners are busy digging holes when a little cloud is seen near the mountains. One of the pleas for it to come a little closer is from Armpit and he says, “Please. All I’m asking for is a little shade.”
Please, cricket, bowlers are asking. All they’re asking for is a little shade.
Please.
Liam
Guest
"There shouldn’t be any pitch in the world in which 150 is a par first innings score." Why? Call me silly, or archaic, or anything under the sun, but that Hobart test was superb. I remember watching a test in Sri Lanka, where Michael Clarke got a 100, the only hundred scored for that match, on a pitch that was later described as being not fit for international cricket, when the thing served up a result, and wasn't unduly dangerous to the players. Whatever feelings you have for cricket, it's pretty obvious that test matches should have a balanced approach; something for both ball and bat. Seeing as that seems to be impossible for modern curators to do, why not create bowling havens; places where a spinner, or a quick, or someone who bowls swing or can bowl a decent leg cutter can take wickets seemingly at will? Seems to me that we have allowed the status quo to drift entirely too much towards batsmen, so much so that even the commentary suggests that the pitches are 'fine' when they are roads of the highest order. Please, give the bowlers a pitch that they can enjoy; even if 3 tests a summer are played on roads, make the other two a bowlers paradise.
Don Freo
Guest
Maybe the pink ball at night will help. Joel Paris made the ball talk against Kiwis tonight.
Andy
Guest
On the plus side for bowlers of the past they know their records will probably never be beaten, i feel more sorry for the batsman of the past. Looking at these batter friendly pitches and at the stupid size of the bats nowadays they should be the ones seething.
Sleiman Azizi
Roar Guru
Sport requires a contest. It is the contest that creates the narrative. And the narrative is what keeps fans interested. It really does surprise me that the powers-that-be seem not to understand this.
Robbie
Guest
Am I the only person who considers low scores to be far more entertaining? The latest CWC was a record breaking one for the batsmen but the most enjoyable game for the fans was when Australia was bowled out for 151 and came within one wicket of pulling off a win. Fans want to see wickets, seeing batsmen slog four after four is just tedious
ThugbyFan
Guest
NSW had a great turning wicket at the SCG for years. It would start as a hard deck, high bounce and often would seam about if cloudy weather was around. If you survived the 1st day it was a ripper to bat on, then by day 3 it would slow down and bounce much lower. By day 4, in good weather it only allowed very fast and/or accurate quicks a good chance of wickets but now helped spinners to come into the game. By day 5, it was a turner. This was almost a perfect test match cricket pitch as all sorts of expertise were needed to consistently score well there. Good batsmen still scored, but during the match all sots of bowlers got a chance. I remember S.Gavaskar (Ind) and D.Randall (Eng) scoring brilliant centuries there, and the Aussies beating the mighty West Indies twice in the 1980’s, simply because they couldn’t handle spin bowling. A decent A-grader could have scored big runs in the recent Perth test, which to be quite honest devalued the runs scored by all the batsmen. To be honest, at present I would rather watch a test match at Headingly or in India than here in Australia. All Perth did was cure my insomnia. Sadly they started doctoring the pitches in the mid 2000's to get Test matches to last 5 days. They deny this but look at the sorry state of all the grounds now. Since then the only time that the bowlers got a chance was in the 2013-14 season, which was payback to the Poms for their pitch doctoring in the Ashes series in England. The SCG is now a bland excuse of a pitch barely able to hold 1st class matches. Melbourne is the same, a horrible drop-in pitch, where boredom wins the day. And what they have done to Perth and Brisbane pitches is nothing short of criminal. But the powers-to-be, ever mindful of the TV dollar, will just keep going and offer weak excuses such as natural evolution, blame climate change, blame the poor soil, blame ISIS and Al Qaida, blame anything but the bleeding obvious.
Jocko
Guest
Just rubbish is what the pitches are. And the consequences are that our bowlers are destroyed and our batsmen are bloody useless on difficult(any hint of difficult) pitches. Bring back a contest where all kinds of bowlers can get a go and batsmen need something more than a 10 ton bat.
Craig Swanson
Guest
Just what is happening to our traditional Aussie pitches? Where has the life gone from the Gabba and WACA tracks? You used to be able to define each of our pitches by their difference surfaces. Not any more. To watch Josh Hazlewood struggle on decks that has always offered plenty for a genuine seam bowler tells the sorry story. The great Glenn McGrath must be quietly seething over the state of our test pitches. This is all about filling tv and cricket execs pockets by ensuring five day test matches. That is the bottom line.
James T
Guest
Pitches don't necessarily need more juice just a bit of pace. Some variety was good. Depending on the pitch two spinners where played in Sydney and Adelaide while none may be required in Brisbane and Perth. Looking at the wickets it's no wonder there aren't many decent spinners coming through, or batsman with decent technique either. Put a bit more pace in the wicket and batsman can't go as hard giving the bowler a chance. How did batting get this bad, even England and New Zealand, as bad as they where in the 90's got a test deep into day 4.
Mike from Tari
Guest
I have been disappointed with the cricket so far, the contest between bat & ball has been devalued, is it the pitches, I wonder, have the Directors of the Gabba & Wacca along with Cricket Australia along with Ch9 issued instructions for money reasons that the pitches that are the fastest in the land be made docile so the games last 5 days, have the balls also combined to this situation????. I don't know when we will get a real contest between the batsmen & bowlers to sort the wheat from the chaff.