The rumpus about pitch doctoring at the Oval has often been accompanied by a retort that Australia best not complain because we've been doctoring pitches for years:
It’s not the sort of thing we do, is it? I mean, preparing a pitch in England to suit the home team. Aren’t we above that sort of thing? Spirit of the game and what-not? We leave that sort of chicanery to Asian chaps – and to Australians, who have all too often provided Shane Warne with a raging turner in Sydney.
~~ Scyld Berry
Incidentally, just in case you confused that Scyld Berry with all the other Scyld Berrys who write about cricket, he's the same Scyld Berry who wrote last year:
India's success gives England hope for Ashes
In planning their strategy for 2009, England need to think about slow, turning pitches, negating Australia's advantage in pure pace and playing to their own strengths of swing and left-arm spin.
And then there's this:
Pot, kettle, Shane Warne
I heard Shane Warne going on about the Oval pitch again today. He had changed his position slightly from “He (the curator) overbaked it a little bit to make sure there is a result” to “looks a little worn”. I wonder if the mellowing of his position is because someone pointed out that Warne himself had custom made, specially prepared wickets in Australia for a DECADE AND A HALF. Pitches that became raging turners and that looked like a tank battle had taken place within two naffing days. Talk about being hypocritical....
Australia doctoring pitches is an accusation I categorically reject.
The Gabba, Adelaide Oval and Bellerive have been the same for as long as I can remember.
The Gabba, in particular, is a cricket pundit's dream: lively to start, a good batting track for a couple of days, spin friendly to finish.
Adelaide Oval is a batting paradise for four day matches, but the fifth day of Adelaide Tests is often the best day's cricket each summer.
It's a toss-up (with any luck it's not Ricky Ponting's call) whether the Gabba or Adelaide Oval are the best Test wickets in world cricket.
Bellerive has not hosted too many Tests, but while it's generally bat-friendly, it's never comes close to being anything other than a solid cricket wicket.
Sydney is certainly spin friendly, although less so in recent years. But it has has always been the same: good to bat on, then deteriorating by late on the fourth day and into the fifth day.
Melbourne was a fiasco in the late seventies and early eighties, but that wasn't by design, it was courtesy of poor management. Once the ground had been renovated and the drop-in pitches properly matured, Melbourne decks have been solid, if slightly slow and low wickets.
Perth was traditionally a hard, fast track, a speed merchant's paradise. If anything, it was made to order for the West Indies, who won there in 1975, 1984, 1988, 1993 and 1997. Perth is now the let-down track of the summer.
The point is, Australian pitches during my cricket watching lifetime, make up the best set of cricket wickets in the world, and it's been that way since at least 1970.
Not once do I remember a curator changing a wicket to suit a given set of circumstances.
The only change is that CricAussie and Channel Nine have demanded roads that last at least four days so that matches are guaranteed to go into the fifth day.
There is about as much chance of the Australian cricket heavy-hitters demanding a minefield as there is of me being selected to replace Klutz Haddin behind the poles.
