Cricket Australia won’t seek more pitch control despite costly two-day Test matches

Cricket Australia (CA) won’t increase their control over Test pitches, insistent local curators are best placed to produce their own wickets despite a costly Ashes series.

The state of pitches was thrust into the spotlight last summer, with the Perth and MCG Tests both over in two days and costing CA close to AUD15 million in profits.

As things stand, (CA) do not direct venues on what type of pitch to produce, but do have Les Burdett as a consultant able to assist curators. Part of that includes telling curators they want four-day Tests as a minimum, and wickets that produce a contest between bat and ball without boring draws.

But any thought of a centralised model has been taken off the table, with officials firm in their belief that pitches are best left to venue staff.

“It’s inconceivable that we could ever control much more than we do now,” CA’s head of operations Peter Roach said. “In England, you could put in a central curator to go around or New Zealand, or South Africa, because the wickets and the clays and the climates are so similar.

“In Australia, because they’re so different, you could put the best curator in Australia to a different venue and all of a sudden they’re an also-ran for a while. Because they wouldn’t know the characteristics and the climate and how those pitches respond to that.”

CA have long been of the opinion that there was little wrong with Perth’s wicket last summer – which was rated “very good” by ICC – instead pointing to player performances for it wrapping up in two days. The same could not be said for Melbourne, where 20 wickets fell on a green pitch on Boxing Day.

But Roach was confident the situation would remedy itself for the Test against New Zealand next summer, pointing to the wicket curator Matt Page produced in 2024.

Likewise, he said it was important for Australia that all cities retain their own wicket characteristics, often playing into the hands of both the team and viewers.

“The difference of our pitches across from west to east to north to south is so pronounced and it’s something that we don’t want to change,” Roach said. “We think it’s a really good competitive advantage that we don’t want to make our wickets all too similar like we see in some other countries.

“Giving curators the chance to explore their unique characteristics is really important. But with that comes a reasonable amount of risk. It does mean that occasionally we go wrong … But I think our history is pretty good in terms of working with venues to improve them.”

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