RE: First England Win In Australia For 15 years

The pitch was definitely in favour of the bowlers but some of the batting (as it has been all series) was woeful. The Aussies in particular got out to balls that you shouldn't get you out on any pitch. Carey and Green both innings threw their wicket away. Khawaja 2nd innings hooking to fine leg 2nd ball and then Labuschagne who just gets out the same way on any pitch to any bowler.

You're right about the drop-in pitches. Part of the problem you have with them is that they don't usually have any pace so if you don't leave grass on them then you'll get 4 or 5 days but it'll be fairly turgid cricket.

In many ways, that's what England have been expecting and planning for these last few years because those are the kind of pitches that the Aussies have prepared on the last couple of tours. 2017 and 2021 there was no chance that they'd give Broad and Anderson a wicket with any live grass to bowl on!

This year guys like Chris Woakes and Sam Cook were left at home because again, the feeling was that you'd need bowlers with extra pace to get 20 wickets on flat, slow surfaces. Australia have won the Ashes bowling Boland, Dogget, Neser and Richardson - that's basically an English county attack!

On the money side, I don't know how it works in Australia but in England it wouldn't be the ECB that loses out, it'd be the individual ground/county. They bid for the rights to host the Test so the ECB get their money either way but obviously if the game doesn't go long enough or they otherwise can't fill the ground then the stadium/county will not cover the cost of the initial bid. Hence the reason that you'll see competitive pitches which are designed to go at least 4 days in England and why some of the smaller grounds that have tried to establish themselves as Test match venues i.e. the Riverside up in Durham, have almost gone bankrupt when they failed to meet the costs of the bid to the ECB.