MCG curator concedes pitch went ‘too far’ in favouring bowlers amid criticism over quick Boxing Day Take a look at | Ashes 2025-26

The MCG’s head curator has conceded workers went “too far” in making ready a pitch that favoured the bowlers too closely within the Boxing Day Take a look at, saying he was in a “state of shock” whereas watching the match unfold.

However the stadium’s chief govt is standing by the under-fire curator after the Take a look at match between Australia and England completed inside two days.

Cricket Australia is bracing for a heavy monetary loss from the match, solely a month after the Ashes opener in Perth additionally ended with three days to spare.

It’s the first time the identical collection has had a number of two-day Checks in 129 years.

Hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in refunds can be handed to patrons who had bought tickets for day three, which had been bought out and will have attracted a 3rd successive crowd of greater than 90,000.

Matthew Web page, the Melbourne Cricket Membership’s head curator, left 10 mm of grass on the pitch, up from 7mm final yr when Australia famously beat India late on day 5.

“We’re making an attempt to stability that contest between bat and ball all through, over the 4 or 5 days, to supply that charming Take a look at for all,” Web page advised a press convention on the MCG on Sunday.

“We left it longer as a result of we knew we have been going to get [hot] climate on the again finish that we knew we would have liked our grass [for].

“You look again at it and also you go, ‘effectively, it’s favoured the bowlers an excessive amount of days one and two’.

“If that doesn’t occur, then we set ourselves up actually good for day three and 4.”

The pitch was treacherous to bat on for either side, with batters combating the sideways motion of the wobble-seam ball.

“If we don’t have seam motion right here on the MCG we change into very uninteresting, very lifeless and really flat, which isn’t any good for the gamers, no good for the spectators and it’s no good for the sport,” Web page mentioned.

“So for us, it’s about offering that seam motion. We’ve gone too far with this one and clearly we’re very, very disenchanted that it’s solely gone two days.”

Web page mentioned he was “a state of shock” watching the match unfold on the primary day. “It was a rollercoaster experience for 2 days,” he mentioned. “We’ll study from it, we’ll develop from it, we’ll get higher at it.”

The pitch prompted criticism even from fast-bowling greats akin to Stuart Broad, Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee that it was unfair for batters.

England captain Ben Stokes, even after securing his nation’s first Take a look at win in Australia for 15 years, criticised the pitch for being too closely in favour of bowlers.

“Being brutally sincere, that’s probably not what you need,” Stokes mentioned. “Boxing Day Take a look at match, you don’t desire a recreation ending in lower than two days. Not very best.”

However MCC boss Stuart Fox mentioned he had full religion in Web page and his floor workers.

Web page was poached from the WACA after the MCG pitch obtained a poor score when solely 24 wickets fell throughout 5 days in a uninteresting 2017 draw.

Fox advised not all the blame needs to be on Web page, saying aggressive batting additionally contributed to the landslide of wickets.

“We purchased Matt on eight years in the past as a result of he’s thought of the most effective within the nation, if not the most effective,” Fox mentioned.

“I nonetheless consider that, and I at all times will.

“He’s carried out an amazing job; him and his workforce labored tirelessly to get this proper.

“You’ll be able to see he’s disenchanted. He carries that duty and my job as a frontrunner is to help folks.

“Once you consider in your folks, you get behind them and help them and I do know he’ll reply.”

Australia star Travis Head, who top-scored within the match with 46, mentioned he felt for Web page.

“I really feel for him, it’s bloody robust,” Head mentioned on Sunday.

“You allow one or two millimetres (of grass) on with prime quality bowling, and you end up quick, and you’re taking two or three mills off with prime quality batting, and also you go the opposite means.”

Australia and England will get pleasure from an additional three days to organize for the fifth and last Take a look at on the SCG, which begins on 4 January.

With Australian Related Press