MELBOURNE, March 23 : Australia’s cricket board will resist calls to exert greater control over the nation’s test wickets despite a pair of two-day matches during the Ashes that cost the local game millions of dollars.
The first Ashes test against England at Perth Stadium and the fourth at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) were decided in two days, prompting widespread criticism of the pitches’ preparation.
While the Perth wicket was rated highly by the International Cricket Council’s match referee, the MCG pitch was given an “unsatisfactory” rating for being too much in favour of the bowlers after 36 wickets fell.
Test wickets are prepared independently by ground staff at the venues but after day one of the Melbourne test, Cricket Australia (CA) CEO Todd Greenberg said it would be “hard not to get more involved” in them, saying two-day matches were bad for business.
On Monday, however, CA’s head of operations Peter Roach said the governing body would keep its distance, saying Australia’s vast size and different conditions made it impractical to centralise pitch preparation.
“It’s inconceivable that we could ever control much more than we do now,” Roach told reporters on Monday.
“In England, you could put in a central curator to go around or New Zealand, or South Africa, because the wickets and the clays and the climates are so similar.
“In Australia, because they’re so different, you could put the best curator in Australia to a different venue and all of a sudden they’re an also-ran for a while.
“Because they wouldn’t know the characteristics and the climate and how those pitches respond to that.”
Test matches last up to five days, with most finishing within four. But two-day tests are very much a rarity.
The lost days of cricket in Perth and Melbourne were a huge financial blow for Australian cricket, leaving CA nearly A$15 million ($10.43 million) out of pocket due to ticket refunds and other costs, local media reported.
Roach spoke to media after CA unveiled Australia’s home summer schedule, which includes a first-ever four-test series against neighbouring New Zealand starting in Perth on December 9, followed by tests in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.
($1 = 1.4380 Australian dollars)
