First England Win In Australia For 15 years
Too Much Green Grass.
Earlie today the English cricket team won their first Ashes match in Australia for 15 years and instead of talking about cricket everyone was discussing the pitch. Test matches are given 5 days for completion for a reason as this is meant to be a test of all skills. Most matches last between 3.5 and 5 days so when matches end within 2 days there are questions asked.
Test matches are the pinnacle of cricket with the pitch playing a major role as it slowly deteriorates over the 5 days. This is why winning the toss is vitally important as it gives you the use of the pitch when it is at it's best for batting. The weather may change that type of thinking especially if there is cloud cover which helps induce the cricket ball to swing.
The 4th test match of the Ashes series was being played at the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground more commonly known as the MCG. On day one 20 wickets fell and on day two the game was wrapped up by England. This is disastrous for Cricket Australia as this is the big money earner for the year. The first 3 days had been sold out which by finishing on day 2 they have to refund all those 94 000 tickets not required on day 3. To get an idea how much money has been lost last year for the boxing day test match at the MCG they had 374 000 spectators walk through the turnstiles. This year they will have half that revenue and will be seen as a total disaster for Australian Cricket.
Early reports suggest that this will be a $8 million loss which comes after the Adelaide test also concluded within 2 days with Cricket Australia losing another $2.5 million in ticket sales. There is also television revenue being lost for every day no live tv coverage is being televised globally. The Ashes should be a big money earner yet this series looks more likely Cricket Australia will be lucky to break even. They also pay for the English cricket team to tour the country covering all expenses like hotels, flights plus food and drink.
The problem with cricket grounds in Australia is they use the drop in pitches today which is a pitch grown and curated elsewhere. The reason behind this is the sports venues like the MCG can host other sporting events without damaging the pitch. This is all for the reason of generating more income for these venues so you cannot have your cake and eat it and complain when things do not go your way.
In the past cricket wickets at various venues around the world were known for certain characteristics. Maybe pace and bounce for the first 3 days followed by uneven bounce and spin on days 4 and 5. Some grounds in India take spin on day 1 and have gone to the other extremes. The pitch is supposed to offer a fair contest testing players skills and not favoring one over the other. Australia has lost their cricket ground identity by not having permanent pitches in place which makes every ground the same with nothing unique. Grounds like Lords (211 years) and the Oval (180 years) would never turn to drop in pitches as it changes the game too much.
The Australian groundmen will be under pressure after how much they have cost their employees. How can he keep his job after this? The MCG pitch had a reported 10 mm grass cover which is simply too long. A green grass top favors the bowlers and why batsmen had no chance with this not being an even contest between bat and ball. There has been more than 2000 test matches played between 13 teams and this MCG test was the 28th to be completed within 2 days. Australia have had 2 in 2 weeks which is really terrible and to put that in context England have had 9 test matches to finish within 2 days over a 104 year period.
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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.