Page explained his decision was based on weather conditions, and knowledge that MCG pitches typically don’t deteriorate a lot over the course of a match. When pitches break up, batting becomes harder. If they hold together, it becomes more difficult to get a result.
“We left it longer because we knew we were going to get weather at the back end that we knew where we needed our grass at,” Page said.
“You look back at it and go, ‘It’s favoured the bowlers too much days one and two.’ If that doesn’t happen we set ourselves up really good for days three and four.”
So, he acknowledged, it was a miscalculation. It’s worth noting he has left more grass on the pitch for previous Boxing Day Tests: 12mm for the Test against New Zealand in 2019, 11mm against England in 2021 and 8mm against Pakistan in 2022. Those matches lasted three days or longer.
“We don’t want to go back to where we were in 2017 and our grass is vitally important to what we do,” Page said.
The 2017 Boxing Day Ashes Test ended in a deathly dull draw and prompted the MCC to replace its drop-in pitches and the base they sit in. Only 24 wickets fell in five days. No one wants to see that.
What difference does the grass make?
Put simply, more grass equals more sideways movement off the pitch.
“The length of the grass externally means that the ball interacts with the surface; therefore it’s going to have a chance to move more – that’s the fundamental physics,” explains former Australian fast bowler and NSW and Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson said.
The MCG pitch on Christmas Eve.Credit: Getty Images
“So the longer the grass, the more chance as [the ball] pitches, something will interact with the seam, and it will be more likely to deviate. That makes it harder to bat on.”
Australian captain Steve Smith said it wasn’t just the length of the grass that made batting hard, but a “furry” thickness that contributed to unpredictable bounce.
“This one it probably started quite slow. Not tennis bally [bounce], normally that’s from the moisture of the wicket,” Smith said.
“The thickness of the grass, the ball was sitting in the grass, if that makes sense to you. I felt in the first innings I almost chipped one to mid-on playing a defensive shot that sat on the grass.
“It was tricky to drive the ball because [of] how much the seam was catching the grass and stopping.”
In the first innings Smith was bowled by a Josh Tongue ball that moved sharply and late. England opener Ben Duckett was caught fending a ball that held up in the surface, illustrating Smith’s point.
Who is Matt Page?
Page was recruited to the MCG role from the Western Australia Cricket Association in November 2017 where he worked on the WACA pitch and the newly opened Optus Stadium in Perth.
He started at the ’G only a month before the 2017 Ashes Test, which produced a “poor” pitch rating from the International Cricket Council.
It took time – the pitch for the 2018 Test against India was also slow and low – but Page has since earned praise for turning the MCG pitch into the best in the country.
Lawson said he’d been concerned when he heard Smith describe the grass as “furry” on Test eve, but acknowledged there was no precise formula for pitch preparation.
MCG curator Matt Page looks on during an Australia nets session on December 24.Credit: Getty Images
“The joy of the game is that it is not a science, it’s an art – I call it an organic game of willow, leather, wind, sun – all that stuff,” Lawson said.
“It should not be the same everywhere you play.
“If you want the game to go five days, you don’t want it moving a lot off the seam – as this one did.
“It’s a lapse of judgement. There’s no doubt about that.”
Page said he hears feedback from players before every Test but “you have to go with your gut feel”.
Where to from here?
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The ICC will deliver a pitch rating, but MCC chief executive Stuart Fox has stood by Page and his staff.
Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg told SEN on Saturday that CA had previously taken a “hands off” approach to pitch preparation.
The MCG has a big two years ahead headlined by the Boxing Day Test against New Zealand next summer and the150th anniversary Test between Australia and England in March 2027.
“I’m not suggesting we’re going to go around talking to ground staff, but we do have to have a careful eye on what our expectations are over the course of a summer,” Greenberg said.
