Stokes' dig at pitch as MCG awaits ICC verdict

Ben Stokes suggested the fourth Ashes Test wicket would face more scrutiny if it was played "somewhere else in the world" as the Melbourne Cricket Club braces for the International Cricket Council's forthcoming verdict on its seam-friendly pitch.

With Cricket Australia facing another multimillion-dollar loss from the second two-day Ashes Test of the series, Steve Smith conceded he was unsure why curator Matt Page left 10mm of grass on the seam-friendly MCG wicket that saw 36 wickets fall in 142 overs.

The 852 balls it lasted were five more than bowled in this summer's Perth Test, and the Melbourne match was the first ever completed Test on these shores that did not see a single over of spin bowled.

It will have ICC match referee Jeff Crowe pondering whether to give the MCG pitch an "unsatisfactory" rating, which would essentially put the venue on notice. That rating would see the MCG slapped with a demerit point by the ICC.

Six demerit points in five years would earn it a ban from hosting international cricket for 12 months. While that is almost certainly out of the question, an unfavourable rating would essentially equate to a ticking off from the game's global governing body.

It comes as Stokes evoked a perceived hypocrisy that has emerged over how turning pitches in Asia are judged compared to seaming wickets in other parts of the world.

The England captain said his feedback to Crowe "would not be the best". Smith will also have had the opportunity to provide his opinion on the pitch to the ICC's representative after Australia's four-wicket defeat.

"When you go out there and you're faced with conditions, you've got to crack on and deal with it," Stokes told reporters after leading England to their first Test victory on Australian soil in 15 years.

"But, being brutally honest, that's not really what you want. A Boxing Day Test match, you don't want a game finishing in less than two days. Not ideal, but you can't change it once you start the game and you've just got to play what's in front of you.

"But I'm pretty sure if that was somewhere else in the world …"

The Melbourne Cricket Club and CA are now awaiting the ICC's verdict, putting the organisations in a similar position to the one they were in after the 2017 Ashes Test. That pitch came under fire for very different reasons with only 24 wickets taken in five days.

Crowe's criteria here will be to determine whether the pitch "did not allow an even contest between bat and ball … by favouring the bowlers too much, with too many wicket-taking opportunities for either seam or spin."

The ICC rated last month's equally frenetic first Test in Perth, which also failed to get into a third day and saw only 41 more overs bowled than this week's fourth Test, as being played on a "very good" pitch; the highest possible rating.

It's believed this summer’s wickets in Brisbane and Adelaide also received that same verdict, though the ICC has not updated its website since this series commenced.

Below "very good", the other tiers on the ICC pitch rating matrix are "satisfactory", "unsatisfactory" and "unfit". The last "unsatisfactory" pitch reported by the ICC was an ODI in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in October.

No Australian pitch for an international game has been rated below "satisfactory" since the ICC updated its pitch rating system in 2023.

Smith sympathised with MCC ground staff, especially after the previous year's Boxing Day surface against India which produced an epic five-day contest.

"It's tough as a groundsman, I think he's always looking for the right balance," said Smith. "Last year's wicket was an outstanding one, it went to day five (in the) last session.

"In an ideal world every wicket does that, and it's exciting for everyone. Maybe if you took (grass covering) from 10 (mm) to eight, it would have been a nice, challenging wicket, make it a little bit more even, I suppose.

"But groundsmen are always learning and he'll probably take something from that, no doubt."

CA's chief executive Todd Greenberg, who has previously revealed the two-day Test in Perth cost the organisation around $5 million, admitted short Tests are "bad for business".

Greenberg suggested CA might consider taking more control of the preparation of Test wickets in future.

"Historically we have taken a hands-off approach in all of our wicket preparation and allowed the staff and the conditions and those characteristics to be presented," he told SEN before play on Saturday.

"But it's hard not to get more involved when you see the impact on the sport, particularly commercially.

"I'm not suggesting we're going to go around talking to ground staff, but we do have to have a careful eye on what our expectations are over the course of a summer.

"As mesmerising and fascinating and enjoyable as it was to watch as a fan, we want Test cricket clearly to go for longer.

"A simple phrase I'd use is short Tests are bad for business. I can't be much more blunt than that. So I would like to see a slightly broader balance between the bat and the ball.

"I thought (day one) slightly favoured the ball. The batters have some ownership in some of that, it's not all around the pitch, but we've got some challenges."

2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men's Ashes

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Third Test: Australia won by 82 runs

Fourth Test: England won by four wickets

Fifth Test: January 4-8: SCG, Sydney, 10:30am AEDT

Australia squad (fourth Test only): Steve Smith (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Matthew Fisher, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue