The Ashes: Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton question whether MCG pitch was acceptable as Cricket Australia set to lose millions | Cricket News

The drought is over.

After 15 years, England finally won another Test in Australia, coming out on the right side of a fast-paced two-day clash at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Talk of a 5-0 whitewash may now be parked, but you sense there will be a lot more talk on the MCG surface, which featured 10mm of grass, as 36 wickets fell in just 142 overs of a wild match.

None of those 142 overs were bowled by a spinner with seamers monopolizing on a heavily grassed pitch on which no batter got past 50 – Travis Head’s 46 for the hosts the best of the lot.

This rapid end will cost Cricket Australia millions of dollars as ticket refunds are issued and the organization suffers a loss in merchandise, food and beverage sales.

CA CEO Todd Greenberg said Radio SEN before day two: “A simple phrase I would use is: short tests are bad for business. I can’t be much more direct than that.

“Historically, we’ve taken a hands-off approach to all of our preparation at the wicket… but it’s hard not to get more involved when you see the impact on the sport, particularly on a commercial level.”

Sir Alastair Cook said the first day’s play led to an “unfair contest” as 20 wickets fell, with another former England captain, Michael Vaughan, calling it “shocking”.

But what did Sky Sports’ men on the field, Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain, do from the heavily grassed wicket as this Ashes series endured a second two-dayer in four Tests after the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it opening contest in Perth?

“I don’t think Shane Warne would have thought that pitch was acceptable”

Hussein said: “I don’t think the great Shane Warne would have thought it was acceptable and I don’t think it’s acceptable to have no spin at all and have so much movement in the box.

“It was ridiculous at times. It can be exciting, but there are traditionalists who like the ebb and flow and the slow build. It wasn’t slow, it was fast forward and we’ve had enough of that, whether it’s through T10, T20, The Hundred.”

Hussain then asked his colleague Atherton if he thought the MCG surface was acceptable for Test cricket.

Athers said: “It wasn’t dangerous and it was fair to both sides in the sense that it didn’t change. It was a shootout on difficult terrain. But in terms of spectacle it’s not satisfactory.

“There was no excessive spin bowling in the game and you have 90,000 people who got tickets for day three, so it’s going to cost Cricket Australia an absolute bomb.

“You also had players who said the only way to play on the pitch was in an unorthodox way, so for all sorts of reasons it’s an unsatisfying feeling.

“I liken it to one of the ranking turners we’ve seen in Asia in recent years, where the field turns from the start. It’s a fair competition in that both teams have an equal chance, but it doesn’t necessarily show the full range of skills.

“England fans will clearly be delighted to have seen a victory, as will England players, but spectators will be wondering: ‘what kind of Test cricket have I seen?’

“You come and watch a wide variety of skills and the game develops over a period of time. You’re going to encounter extreme conditions from time to time, but we’ve had two now in this series and I don’t think we want to see that too often.”

Stokes: MCG pitch would be ‘hell’ elsewhere

England captain Ben Stokes said his comments to the umpire on the box “wouldn’t be the best”, adding: “To be quite honest, it’s not what you want for a Boxing Day Test match.

“You don’t want a match to end in less than two days. I’m pretty sure if it was anywhere else in the world it would be hell.”

When asked by reporters if Stokes was referring to Asian pitches which can spin prodigiously, he replied: “Those are your words, not mine.”

Australian skipper Steve Smith, replacing the rested Pat Cummins, said: “I think the pitch was too long. It was tricky.

“When you see around 30 wickets over two days, that’s probably too many. Maybe we could get the grass down from 10mm to 8mm.

“It would be nice if it was a little longer and we could entertain the fans more, but that hasn’t been the case.”

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