Curator claims MCG track not to have pace and bounce
The curator of the Melbourne Cricket Ground Cameron Hodgkins has claimed that the wicket for the fourth Ashes test match between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 and England is not going to have the pace and bounce that unsettled the Englishmen in the third
test at the WACA in Perth.
The test starts on Boxing Day and a record crowd in the region of 100,000 is expected to turn up for the first day of the test, however before the match the focus was more on the state of the wicket than the expected attendance.
Many experts of the game and the English media had feared a similar wicket to one that the tourists were exposed to in the third test yet the curator of the venue Cameron Hodgkins brushed aside the notion that the track is going to suit
the quicker men, he in fact claimed that the wicket was going to be placid on the first two days where both batsmen and bowlers would need to be patient for results.
Hodgkins also stated that he had not received any orders from Cricket Australia or the team management on the preparation of the track.
"No, not at all," said Hodgkins, when asked if he had been under orders to ramp up the life in the surface. "A few people would like to believe that was the situation, but the last time I spoke to someone from Cricket Australia was in
the middle of winter. It's entirely a personal thing and it was something I did two weeks ago, so it wasn't on the spur of anything that happened in the last week or so."
Hodgkins also stated that it was wrong to draw similarities with the WACA track that helps the faster men more than any where in the world with its pace and bounce.
He added that the MCG does not have a great reputation as a bowler's paradise. "I would think on the WACA's worst day they would still be faster and bouncier than anything we normally turn out," he said. "We're quite slow on the first
day normally and it probably causes the most difficulty for batsmen who want to get on with it, so patience is normally a fairly key ingredient here. If you don't have that then you can be four or five down early on and the game over."
The curator also stated that the home team http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Victoria-c859 generally opts to make first use of the track unless there is moisture around due to rain or overcast conditions.
"Victoria do tend to bowl first here, because it's an easy pitch to bat on, but it should be one of those tosses where it doesn't really matter," said Hodgkins. "The MCG wickets have never really been accused of being fast and bouncy,
so it's more something that will offer something up front, and then get quite flat towards the end of the match."
What ever the wicket might turn out to be the Boxing Day one thing is for sure that a massive crowd would turn to witness the clash between the two oldest rivals in the game.
The first test match was played in the same city some 135 years ago and since then the rivalry between the two teams have end up becoming the most talked about and revered one in the game.
The current series is poised at a tantalizing point with both teams eyeing the little Ashes urn, hence Hodgkins would be hoping to prepare a wicket that can provide rich entertainment to a massive crowd at the venue.
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