Melbourne Cricket Ground’s seam-friendly pitch for the fourth Ashes Test was rated “unsatisfactory” on Monday by the International Cricket Council after it expired within two days.
According to the world governing body’s four-tier rating system, “unsatisfactory” is the second lowest, marking a pitch that “overly favors the bowlers”.
It broke the venue’s streak of “very good” scores for the past three Boxing Day Tests and earned him a handicap.
“The MCG pitch was very much in favor of the bowlers,” said match referee Jeff Crowe.
“With 20 wickets falling on day one, 16 on day two and no batsman reaching a half-century, the pitch was ‘unsatisfactory’ under the guidelines and the venue receives a demerit point.”
England beat Australia by four wickets in the final session of the second day, with no batsman scoring more than 46 in four innings.
The first Test in Perth was also over in two days, but that pitch was rated “very good” by the ICC.
MCG curator Matt Page and his team left 10 millimeters (0.4 in) of grass on the wicket, giving the bowlers movement and bounce and making batting treacherous.
The carnage left Cricket Australia facing A$10 million ($6.7 million) in revenue shortfall, with tickets for the third and fourth days having to be refunded.
“We were disappointed for fans holding tickets for days three and four, as well as the millions of fans excited to watch the action in Australia and around the world, that the pitch did not provide the MCG’s usual balance between bat and ball,” Cricket Australia’s head of cricket James Allsopp said.
“We appreciate the excellent work the staff at the MCG have done over the past few years producing outstanding Test pitches,” he added.
Before the ICC ruling was handed down, Australia coach Andrew MacDonald defended Page and warned against the authorities’ involvement in pitch preparation.
MacDonald said Page had done an “excellent” job over the years and the batsmen should also shoulder some of the blame for not scoring enough runs.
“The perspective I always use is that we have bad Test matches as well — this Test we weren’t at our best and sometimes those things can happen.
“We support him in what he has done and are really proud of the development of the MCG.
“He found a good balance for a long time.”
Cricket Australia is to conduct its own end-of-season review into the management of Test wickets.
CEO Todd Greenberg has proposed a more intrusive approach, with shorter “bad for business” tests.
But McDonald said he was not in favor of any interference, with curators in Australia traditionally independent when preparing pitches, both from captains and Cricket Australia.
“I don’t want to get into a situation […] where we ask for specific surfaces and personalized,” McDonald said.
“I don’t think Australia will ever go there, and I don’t think they’ve ever been there, to my knowledge.”
Australia lead the series 3-1 with the fifth and final Test in Sydney starting on Sunday.
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