Cricket Australia operations chief Peter Roach is adamant the sport’s governing body does not need to step in and strongarm venues over how to prepare ideal Test pitches, coming as pressure intensifies on MCG officials to get their strip right for the showcase event of the summer and avoid another revenue hit for host broadcasters.
The fallout from the two-day Test in Brisbane between Australia and South Africa continues, with match referee Sir Richie Richardson rating the overly lush and seaming Gabba deck – dubbed the “Green Mamba” – as below average and “not an even contest between bat and ball”.
The Gabba was also hit with a demerit point for a pitch that contributed to a stunning 34 wickets falling inside six sessions, although it was not declared unsafe or a health risk.
South Africa captain Dean Elgar even asked whether the Gabba pitch was unsafe, such was his concern with a deck later rated “below average” by match referee Richie Richardson. Credit:Getty Images
Richardson’s assessment – acknowledged as “fair” by CA – has intensified the heat on MCG curator Matt Page to deliver a deck which ensures at least a four-day contest, when the Proteas and Australians take to the field from Boxing Day.
The MCG drop-in pitches have had their fair share of problems, but they improved through 2019 and 2020 until last year when match referee David Boon surprised officials by rating the Ashes deck as average after a Scott Boland-inspired Australia stormed to an innings-and-14-run victory before lunch on day three.
MCC chief Stuart Fox (far left), Cricket Australia operations boss Peter Roach, and MCG curator Matt Page have a lot riding on the Boxing Day pitch.Credit:Paul Jeffers
Roach re-iterated on Wednesday that CA did not instruct curators how to prepare their pitches. Rather, he said, CA provided “guidance” to ground venues.
“One of the beauties of Australia is that we don’t employ curators. The venue, or the states, employ curators, in some respects. We give guidance and discuss how we think Test cricket needs to look,” he said.
“One of the beauties of Test cricket in Australia and why it thrives is because we have these unique characteristics from one side of the country to the other, and we want to see them come out. We don’t want them to be the same from Perth to Sydney, to Hobart – we want to see those characteristics. We are not one to express what they need to be – they know their conditions far better than what we do.”
Roach said he was yet to have an in-depth discussion with Page, ahead of one of cricket’s great annual events.
“I think we can be assured, [with] Test cricket on Boxing Day, there is always pressure for the curator. Test cricket, in any weather, is always pressure for the curator. I haven’t spoken to Matt – we will. But … he knows where he needs to land it on Boxing Day. Given the weather, given the conditions, he will try to get that as right as he can,” Roach said.
“I think the MCG is trying to get to a point where they can provide a pitch with pace and bounce, acknowledging the deterioration of drop-ins here, has been a challenge. Whether that is the same as last year, he will tinker.
“Conditions play a part. It is going to be a lot hotter, thank goodness, in Melbourne than what it has been in the last couple of months. That will play a part in how he prepares the pitch.”
Roach said a Test ideally would finish late on the fourth day, but CA had no issues if it slipped into a fifth because it would “still be in that nice margin”.
Host broadcasters Fox Sports and Seven are also sweating on the second Test going deep into the fourth day, having also lost out in Brisbane.
Seven’s managing director James Warburton told The Age and Sydney Morning Herald that his station took a “revenue hit” because of three spare days in Brisbane, and he felt for his advertising partners who had planned to “ramp up their Christmas messages”.
Roach, a former Victorian wicketkeeper, said he did not expect an overreaction in Melbourne.
“We don’t expect what happened at the Gabba to influence what happens at the MCG. We expect our curators, again, to find that balance between bat and ball given the unique characteristics of the venue they are at,” he said.
“The MCG is a different venue to the Gabba, the curator has now been here five years, tinkered a little bit as perfect as he can, and [we] hope that comes out on Boxing Day.”
Former West Indies captain Richardson, the one-time master batsman who also had a battery of quicks at his disposal, was blunt in his assessment of the Gabba wicket.
“Overall, the Gabba pitch for this Test match was too much in favour of the bowlers,” Richardson said.
“There was extra bounce and occasional excessive seam movement. The odd delivery also kept low on the second day, making it very difficult for batters to build partnerships.
“I found the pitch to be below average as per the ICC guidelines since it was not an even contest between bat and ball.”
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