'State of shock': Cricket reckons with two-day pitch fiasco

The demons of the 2017-18 Ashes bore-draw was the chief factor in the Melbourne Cricket Club producing a Boxing Day pitch tilted too heavily towards favouring fast bowling, and which failed to get the fourth Ashes Test into a third day.

Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg has vowed that his organisation would undertake an end-of-season review of the management of Test wickets around the country as administrators grapple with balancing a preference for seam-friendly surfaces with the aggressive batting tactics teams are now using to combat them.

Greenberg expects the financial shortfall from this week's lost days of cricket to cost CA more than $10 million, conceding the deficit "stings" after forfeiting around half that amount last month from this series’ other two-day Test in Perth.

"With the way batters are batting, and the way the game is evolving, are the preparation of our wickets in lockstep with that?" Greenberg said on Sunday. "If they're not, how do we make sure that they are so that we can try to balance the commercial imperatives versus the performance?"

The Melbourne Cricket Club today took responsibility for a regrettable surface that produced 36 wickets in only 142 overs. Head curator Matt Page explained he left 10mm of grass on the drop-in surface in anticipation of hot weather during the back part of the Test, the biggest on this country's cricket calendar.

The verdict from the International Cricket Council’s match referee Jeff Crowe was expected to land on Monday at the latest. Players and administrators are understood to be bracing for an "unsatisfactory" rating.

A third straight 90,000-plus crowd was expected on Sunday but the fans who showed up in glorious sunshine had to settle for a hastily arranged autograph-signing session by Australian players in Yarra Park.

Page has earnt widespread plaudits for reinvigorating an MCG pitch that reached a low point in 2017 when more than 1,000 runs were scored and only 24 wickets were taken in a turgid five-day drawn Ashes Test. 

The aftermath of that has seen the MCC, along with CA, lean towards providing seam-friendly conditions that promote more entertaining cricket. That Channel Seven announced this Melbourne Test reached its largest TV and streaming audience underlined the sense that viewers have enjoyed the shift.

But Page admitted he had been in a "state of shock" to find he had tilted the balance too far towards fast bowlers.

"I've never been involved in a Test match like it, and hopefully am never involved in a Test match like it again," Page told reporters as the iconic venue's turf boss admirably fronted reporters on Sunday. "It was a rollercoaster ride for two days to see everything unfold."

Page had been surprised by the amount of bounce this week's wicket offered after it spent a whole day under covers last Sunday when the ground received 25mm of rain.

This MCG pitch actually had less grass on it than the one he produced for the 2021-22 Ashes Test (which sported 11mm), as well as the 2019-20 Test against New Zealand (12mm). Those matches finished in three and four days respectively.

There was widespread sympathy for the tightrope curators walk and the number of variables they must take into consideration when producing a Test pitch.

"I feel for him," said Australia opener Travis Head, whose third-innings 46 was the highest score of the Test. "It's bloody tough.

"You leave 1 or 2mm on with high-quality bowling, you find yourself short, or you take 2 or 3mm with high-quality batting and you leave yourself the other way.

"Everyone wants to see someone win. Everyone wants to see wickets. No one wants to see a bloke get 300. There needs to be a balance, and sometimes we're going to see the balance, like last week (the third Test in Adelaide) err to the batters, and some weeks we're going to see it err to the bowlers." 

The curator's conundrum was illustrated by the fact Page's data suggested the 2023-24 Pakistan Test wicket produced more seam movement than this week despite that pitch featuring only 8mm of grass. Last summer's five-day epic against India was played on a surface featuring 7mm.

"We don't want to go back to where we were in 2017," said Page, who moved to the 'G in 2018 having been brought across from the WACA in Perth.

"Our grass is vitally important to what we do. We don't get inconsistent bounce, we don't get deterioration in our pitches and we're trying to balance that contest between bat and ball over the four or five days to provide that captivating Test for all.

"We left it longer because we knew we were going to get weather at the back end that we knew we needed our grass for. You look back at it and you go well, 'It's favoured the bowlers too much day one, day two'.

"If that doesn't happen, then we set ourselves up really good for day three, day four."

Greenberg had flagged after a 20-wicket opening day in Melbourne that CA would be forced to consider whether it needs to have a greater say on how Test wickets are prepared.

Unlike other countries, groundstaff at Australian venues remain fiercely independent. But the commercial realities of fast-forward Tests have been laid bare in recent weeks after the Ashes series commenced with a two-day Test at Perth Stadium.

The pitch for that match was rated "very good" by the ICC, underscoring the difficulty Greenberg faces in the aftermath of his first Ashes series as CEO.

"Clearly the preparation of wickets has such a material impact on us as a business, and so I don't think we can just simply sit around without asking some questions of ourselves," he said.

"What that looks like, I'm not sure. Don't get me wrong – you're not going to see us on the roller and trying to take over wicket preparation.

"We've been very good in this country at trusting those in each of our stadiums to prepare wickets with characteristics that are unique to each of them.

"I'm not suggesting we change that, but we want to have a little bit of insight into what we're about to expect and some of the expectations we will have at our venues. I don't know exactly how that will play out.

"But I don't think I can sit here with a straight face and say that we won't look at that given we've experienced two two-day Tests in the last four Tests."

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