Melbourne pitch causes controversy prior to Australia vs England Boxing Day clash
Ashes just cannot be without a mint of controversies and pre-match mind games. Well, we have been watching former and current players from both sides of the globe tormenting each other by questioning the abilities and prospects of the opposition to come
out victorious in this year’s Ashes. But now a serious controversy of foul play has also found its way in the ongoing five match series between the two arch rivals.
It is rumoured that Cricket Australia (CA) conspired with the ground staff of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) to change the regular slow pitch with a bouncy one, right after England were completely awe stricken by the bounce at the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Western-Australia-c865 Cricket
Association Ground (WACA), Perth.
There are strong suggestions from different quarters that CA after watching England’s demise on a bouncy pitch decided to use this to the home side’s advantage and replace the usual slow pitch of MCG with a pitch identical to the one used in WACA, which
according to some sources was shipped from Perth.
This pitch will surely benefit the home side which is relying on an all pace attack in their bowling arsenal.
The MCG curator Cameron Hodgkins, however, begs to differ with the circulating suspicions, and has rubbished the slightest possibility of foul play from his side in the preparation of the pitch. He believes that the pitch in MCG is always a bit slow.
He said, “The MCG has never been accused of being fast and bouncy. It is more a wicket that offers something up front but is then flat towards the end of the match. I would think even on the WACA’s worst day it would be faster and bouncier than anything
we normally turn out. We are slow on the first day when it causes most difficulty for batsmen who want to get on with it. Patience is a key ingredient here and if you don’t have that then you can be four or five down early on and the game over.”
He refuted the claims that he had been instructed by CA to replace the pitch and said that the decision of changing the pitch was always his own. He clarified that he was not satisfied with the pitch that was initially being prepared for the fourth Test
and therefore, it was replaced by another pitch.
He said, “It was entirely a personal thing and something I did two weeks ago and not on the spur of anything that happened over the last week or so. Being fairly cautious, I normally have a couple of options. Two weeks ago, just prior to our tour match,
it became pretty evident my first option was not going to be ideal for what I envisaged as a Test pitch so I was able to go for what I thought would be a better Test surface.”
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