Melbourne Cricket Club stands by curator Matt Page after two-day Ashes Test debacle
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“That’s a good question; we obviously favored bowlers in what we did,” Page said. “It’s not up to me to decide how you look at that and where that falls on the scale. I’ll leave that to Jeff Crowe.”
The fall of 20 wickets on Boxing Day surprised Page as much as the cricket world.
“I was in a state of shock,” Page said. “I’ve never attended a Test match like this and I hope I never attend a Test match like this again. It was a rollercoaster ride over two days to see it all unfold.”
Page defended his team’s decision to leave 10 millimeters of grass on the field. Last year Australia had shaved up to seven millimeters off the field when they defeated India in the final session of day five, but the cooler, wetter weather leading up to this match, combined with the heat on days three and four, meant it needed a different approach.
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“We don’t have inconsistent bounces, we don’t get distortions on our pitches and we try to balance the competition between bat and ball over four or five days to ensure an enthralling Test for everyone,” Page said.
“For us, we left it longer because we knew we were going to get air on the back end where we needed our grass.
“When you look back, you see that the bowlers preferred a lot on the first and second days. If that doesn’t happen, we will have set ourselves up really well for the third and fourth days.”
This Test was the opposite of the one eight years ago when Australia and England played a dull draw where the bat dominated the ball. This led to crisis talks between the MCC and cricket officials over the features an ideal MCG ground should have.
“Without seam action at the MCG we would be very dull, very lifeless and very flat,” Page said. “It’s not good for the players, it’s not good for the spectators, it’s not good for the game. The important thing for us is to get the seam moving. We went too far on this and even though it’s only been two days we’re very, very disappointed.”
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