Melbourne Cricket Ground head curator Matt Page and Melbourne Cricket Club chief executive Stuart Fox have spoken to the press following the premature ending to the fourth Ashes Test.
“I didn’t think we’d be standing here for a press conference this morning, I thought we’d be getting ready for day three,” Fox admitted.
“We didn’t plan for it, we didn’t want this to happen, (but) this pitch has clearly favoured the bowlers and hasn’t given the batters a good opportunity to get set, so we’re obviously disappointed.
“Our responsibility is to provide a pitch with good balance between bat and ball, we just weren’t able to do that.”
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It was view shared by MCG curator Matt Page who admitted to being in a ‘state of shock’ as wickets tumbled at a record rate in the first two days of the Test which England won by four wickets inside six sessions.
“We’re obviously really disappointed that it’s gone two days,” Page said on Sunday morning.
‘We’ll learn from this’ says MCG curator
Asked about the reasoning for leaving significantly more grass coverage than the 2024 Boxing Day Test pitch at the same venue, Page confirmed the forecast for hot conditions in Melbourne on Sunday and Monday contributed to the fateful decision.
“We’ll learn from this, we’ll get better from it, as we have done over the last seven years with every setback we’ve faced,” he said.
In total, 36 wickets fell in less than six sessions at the MCG, making it the third-shortest Ashes contest on Australian soil in Test cricket history.
The pitch has been widely criticised by past and present players, fans and administrators and may even be issued with an embarrassing ‘unsatisfactory’ rating by ICC Match Referee Jeff Crowe in the coming days.