Some of Ashes cricket’s biggest names have attacked the condition of the MCG pitch after a record crowd saw 20 wickets fall during a Boxing Day outburst in Melbourne.
An official crowd of 94,199 broke the attendance record at the country’s largest sporting venue, eclipsing the 2015 World Cup final and setting a new high for this historic rivalry.
But while they were treated to a barrage of non-stop action on a green track that offered frequent and sometimes drastic lateral movements, the sight of both teams being bowled out in less than 76 overs was perhaps an exaggeration.
Not since 1909 had two innings been completed on the first day of an Ashes Test. England struck first, blowing away the hosts for 152 to give themselves a chance to save face in a series that had already slipped through their fingers, but were even less prepared to face tough conditions.
Facing a skilled and ruthless attack from Australia, they managed 110 all out in just 29.5 overs – the smallest total and shortest innings of the fast-fading Bazball era. The average score per wicket was just 13.1, with Harry Brook’s devil-may-care 41 being the best from either side.
And the verdict from the commentary booths was damning. “That wicket on the first day is a shocker, it really is,” lamented 2005 Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan on Fox Sports.
Sir Alastair Cook, who grounded a belligerent 244 on a flat MCG deck in 2017, agreed on Test Match Special, adding: “We need to talk about this wicket. It is too heavily weighted on the bowlers.
“They didn’t have to work that hard for wickets. Could both sides have batted better? Yes. But I looked at the bowling on that pitch and thought, ‘How do you deal with that?’ Mitchell Starc was bowling around the wicket, some climbing miles that way and some climbing miles the other way. I don’t know how you got it. It’s a bit of an unfair competition.”
On SEN Radio, former England bowler Stuart Broad said: “It’s just done way too much. The pitch is doing too much if I’m brutally honest. Test match bowlers don’t need this amount of movement to look threatening.”
Even former Australia captain Ricky Ponting was in doubt despite his former side ending the day 46 runs ahead with all 10 wickets from the second innings intact. “We found that there was 10mm of grass left on this particular surface. Last year, a test match that took place late into day five, we think there was only 7mm of grass on there,” he said on Channel 7.
“That will be the question that will be asked to the groundsmen: why did you leave more grass this year than in previous years?”
The result could leave another big hole in Cricket Australia’s finances after a two-day finish in the series opener in Perth. That cost at least £1.5 million in ticket sales, with further big hits due to lost income in the bars and food courts.
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