The time for excuses has passed. In fact, justifications were already stale last summer.
On Boxing Day, the MCG monumentally failed to provide a competitive wicket at a key juncture in the Test summer – a failure that has spectacularly halted the momentum of an otherwise brilliant series.
Most are sick of talking about the 22-yard strip of grass in the middle of Australia’s biggest stadium, namely because in no other sport do playing conditions overtake the action as the main narrative of the day. But it has, yet again, as the pitch played depressingly to form: not enough bounce and lateral movement for the bowlers, and not enough pace for the batsmen to free their arms.
The result? A turgid two-wicket day where the run-rate finished on 2.4 in front of 73,000 fans who deserved so much more. After the ICC rated the brilliant Perth Stadium wicket as ‘average’, most can’t wait for the adjective they’ll use for the MCG strip.
Firstly, let’s get the disclaimers out of the way: yes, creating a good cricket wicket for five days is difficult. Yes, drop-in wickets are tough to master (even though Adelaide and Perth seem to have nailed it). And yes, there are soil and clay intricacies at the MCG that are indecipherable to most, but have plagued the ground in recent years.
Yes, yes, yes. We’ve heard it all. But like the politician who speaks with deliberately complicated jargon to brush over shortcomings, it doesn’t change the end result. And that result is a distinct failure for all cricket fans.
The public don’t care that the new MCG drop-ins will be good in ‘three to five years’. They could hardly be bothered that a ‘highly-credentialed’ curator has been appointed. And they sure as hell couldn’t give a stuff about drainage and sand and concrete and pitch trays.
The only reason a cursory interest is shown in pitch technology is through a desperation to watch good quality test cricket. And they want to know how a world-class facility can provide a surface so unfavourable to that.
This is not to lay all the blame at the feet of the ground staff, who have reportedly done all they could before this test. But their research and preparatory work suggested the pitch would do much more than what it did on day one, which means they also aren’t blameless. The MCC, naturally, have a key role to play in this, and it appears from the outside looking in that there has been a lack of foresight on this fairly sizeable issue.
A pitch plays such a central role in a Test match, and a lifeless one does more damage than just failing to create a result. This pitch may do that, but the damage from another dull Boxing Day has already been done.
Long-term questions about the venue’s viability to host test cricket should be seriously tabled. As a proud Melburnian that’s tough to say, but give me a Gabba green-top over the life-sapping road of the MCG any day. If the only sacrifice is that I can’t watch test cricket in the flesh until the pitch issues are sorted, then so be it.
Australian bowler Pat Cummins. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
The pitch, to finish, wasn’t the only disappointing thing inside the MCG on Boxing Day. The booing of Mitch Marsh – whose selection was wholly justified based on the lifelessness of the aforementioned 22-yard slab – by Victorians was at best poor, and at worst a disgrace.
Opinions on selection are a national pastime, and debates about players coming in or out of the XI are always robust. But when a player pulls on their whites sporting an Australian crest, those opinions – at least audible ones – should be shelved.
Marsh, as it turns out, bowled well (0/23 off 15) and presented a more-than-credible fifth option for captain Tim Paine.
Stuckbetweenindopak
Roar Rookie
I would choose one of these two strategies but both strategies have to be of extreme nature so as to avoid a draw. 1. Stick to the natural character of the pitch i.e spin friendly, even make it more spin friendly than usual, a pitch that will definetly crumble on last two days. Bring in Marnus for mitch marsh, and Maxwell for finch and hope to win the toss and bat first. 2. Change the character completelety, make it as pacer friendly and result oriented as possible, then again bat first and put a total on the board. Open with khawaja, put finch at no 6, again bring Maxwell for mitch marsh
Stuckbetweenindopak
Roar Rookie
Most annoying thing in this match was when jadeja only on day 3 was trying to hit that patch like he was bowling in Nagpur. I mean come-on you cannot make them feel at home. In australia I expect jadeja gettin smacked in all directions. Utter failure on part of mcg curator.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
@Geoff: The MCG pitch will always be low, slow & dull while they continue to use pulped Victorians as fertiliser.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
Consistency isn't one of your strengths is it? You leap in to defend the drongo Warne when he's called a drongo but here you are describing Warner as " ...not intellectually smart...". And the rest of your Warner defence is just rubbish. He's thrown a punch at Joe Root in a bar, abused Crash Craddock in a drunken Twitter tirade, initiated a shoving match in the players race in RSA, been frequently described as the worst, juvenile sledger in world cricket and of course, hurled 140 years of Australian cricket culture onto the scrapheap with his ball-tampering and then lied about it. But all that doesn't matter to you because he's "personable & respectful in a social setting". Sheeesh.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
An old style WACA wicket, +made for great cricket, and apart from the West Indians and South Africans gave Australia the advantage. This certainly wasn't it, Australia got the advantage of batting first. This MCG wicket has started doing things like the Perth wicket, but now India have the advantage of having bat first.
User
Roar Rookie
spot on 13, just like how Melbourne believe the grand prix Is better than it was in Adelaide now you will not be able to reason with them. day 1 was a forty degree work day ffs so a crowd that was minimal was to be expected but atleast it delivered a difficult wicket with a quality game of cricket, all this has delivered is an excuse to eat ham and rewatch the afl gf.
sheek
Roar Guru
Well, the caravan has probably moved on from this article, but having seen Australia dismissed for 151, a massive 292 runs behind, the pitch is almost obsolete now as a talking point. More pointedly, where do we get a top six batting line-up from? Smith & Warner are two to come back, maybe Khawaja & Harris can hold their spots, so we still need two others. It's indeed a mess.
CUW
Roar Rookie
one issue it seems with these "drop-in" pitches is the variable bounce. its funny we have talk about variable bounce in australia - coz there was a time some years back , it was the higher bounce and the constancy of it that made aussy ( and South african) pitches a test for batters. i think many batters who visit struggle to adjust to this variance. even the local batters are finding it hard to trust the pitch. there have been quite a few snakes going at ankle height and a few short bumpers have hit batters who tries to duck under. also at times it has been funny to see the hawk eye show spinners sending the ball to the keeper's shoulder. most of the time when a pitch is graded - it is the bounce that is considered as a metric. inconsistent bounce is what makes it difficult and then dangeros to batters - not movement or excessive turn.
Nathan Absalom
Roar Guru
Australia are 6/114, will do well to hold on for a bore draw from here.
Beni Iniesta
Guest
The MCG pitch is an absolutely boring lifeless road. A bore draw at the G is no way for the Boxing Day Test to be played out. An absolute disgrace. How are the Aussies going anyway?
Nathan Absalom
Roar Guru
If ever the old adage "don't judge a wicket until both sides have batted" applies, it is to the Roar website this series. Every test match there has been an article commenting on how the pitch has dictated the game only for the second innings to not turn out as expected. The truth is that India are hitting the seam more than the Australians, and while there's little in the wicket there's enough when the seam is up and the ball is full enough to get some swing, which again the Australians didn't do. For the long term benefit of Australian cricket, it wouldn't be a bad thing if Australia were thrashed in this match that at this point, they thoroughly deserve to lose. Instead of blaming the pitch, learn the lessons of not neglecting some of the basics. And, while you can call me Captain Obvious for this one, give Cummins the new ball.
Redb
Roar Guru
Technically the ICC can act. But they won't strip the most famous cricket ground in the world behind Lords of a cricket test. A lot of unrealistic dreamers here.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
And his 26 average is even worse than 26. Here's why... MM has a 'Reverse MacGill' thing going. MacGill's bowling average is lower than it 'should' be due to the fact that many of his games were played on spin-friendly pitches. ie Games where the pitch was anticipated to assist spin. MM is the reverse of that, often being selected as a stock bowler because the pitch is read as a road. So consequently, his bowling average would be lower if he played in all games, but his batting average would also be lower.
sheek
Roar Guru
I've tried to stay away from criticising the MCG curator team because I appreciate how tough a job it must be to get these things right. But it's tough. A long time ago, & also for a long period of time, Australia was renowned for having among the best cricket curators in the world. So how did we suddenly become poor at preparing good cricket pitches? Not everywhere in Australia, but certainly often enough everywhere it seems. One problem it seems to me, is the push by CA at one stage to get all the pitches to play the same. The is sheer madness. For cricketers to develop all-round skills, they need the variety of pitches. A variety of pitches & conditions also means that spinners remain relevant to the game.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
@DTM: Why would it be "a disaster for CA and for the lovers of test cricket in this country" if the MCG was removed from the playing list? Wouldn't "lovers of Test cricket" rather see a game played on a passable pitch? And as CA derives most of its income from tv rights then the differential in theoretical attendances would be irrelevant. Indeed, one could argue that getting plummeting tv ratings (and ground attendance I noticed on Day 2) for an annual MCG snoozefest would damage CA's future rights bargaining position *and* its advertising revenue.
fuzhou
Roar Rookie
I think you owe Peter Handscomb a public apology. Did you mean Cameron Bancroft? If so, say so publicly.
sheek
Roar Guru
No wetzen, If you don't like Warne, that's a personal issue for you to deal with. But as a commentator on cricket matters, if he's a drongo, the rest of us must be double-drongos.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
@sheek: Just clarifying. So you're saying that having "an impressive Test record" precludes someone from being a drongo. Novel.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
@ChrisLove; Yep. Mea culpa. Soon as I hit 'Add Comment' I realised my idiotic libel, but for reasons that still elude me, the post went into 'Awaiting Moderation', (maybe for calling SKW a "drongo"?), where it stayed for some time, so I was unable to edit it before departing.
Rats
Guest
Most of the international players have become spoilt brats. They want the perfect pitch conditions to suit them. It is like they want pitch to do the 75% of their job. Batsman have lost the ability and skill to play when there is swing/pace/bounce/spin from the pitch/conditions. Bowlers don't want to bend their backs, bowling captain don't want to try to be innovative to get batsmen out on flat or slow tracks. Players just don't want conditions to challenge them. They want conditions to favour them. Hence so much talk about pitch in the last few years. Flat pitches have always been there. But in the past, the talk used to be about player abilities/inabilities, skills and were not about pitch ratings.