THE GREEN GREEN GRASS OF HOME

Soups writes:

I wonder if you've read this story. It rings true from my perspective. The WACA test pitch was it's usual whitey-yellow with a tinge of green where all the Shield games at the WACA have been played on green tops. Watching CATV has caused me to wonder "where's the pitch", so green has the pitch been. Almost as green as the adjoining strips! Bowling gets easier (so no hard slog), Batting remains harder (no getting easier once settled) so scores go down. Not a good indication of Test cricket.

This would appear to open up a whole can of Pandoras:

CA to investigate "result wicket" requests

Tasmanian captain George Bailey's frank depiction of widespread pitch doctoring in the Sheffield Shield will be investigated by Cricket Australia.

Bailey described the preparation of "result wickets" to the specifications of home sides as a commonplace practice in some states, a troubling reality for CA as it commissions an independent review into factors affecting the Ashes failure of the Australian team.

Australia's bowlers struggled noticeably to extract life from more even tempered Test match pitches during the series against England, while the batsmen seemed unable to strike the right rhythm for long innings - both drawbacks of the sort of low scoring cricket now prevalent in the Shield.

"Unlike Test cricket, there's no pressure on groundsmen to produce wickets that are going to last three or four days - there's no crowds that come and watch. There's no repercussions if a game lasts two or three days, so I think teams request for a result wicket, and the wickets are playing accordingly, rightly or wrongly."

Of course, killer pitches for Test cricket have their attractions. Watching batsmen duck and dive or take on hostile bowling is one of the great attractions of cricket. Pity CA shit their collective pants whenever there is the merest hint a Test won't go the distance and meet budget. Nor is it likely the current Aussie line-up would be able to last long on a skittish deck; FTBs galore. There's an idea: make the Test boys play in the Weet Bix so they can better handle Boxing Day conditions.

Hot pitches should be mandatory for F50.

Comments

[Jonathan]

When was there last a Shield final between teams getting there with 44 and 38 points respectively?

[Lou]

This thing about averaging 60 before you get into the test team is Punter rewriting history. Neither he or Clarke had to average anything of the sort.

So what if they are bowler friendly wickets in Aus? You get that in England and it didn't stop their bowlers making mince meat over here of our batsmen on our supposedly batsmen friendly pitches.

[Yobbo]

Before the go ballistic at groundsmen they need to take a look at the format.

The shield gives 2 points for first innings points and 4 for outright wins, so an outright win is the equivalent of 2 first innings victories. Of course they are going to prepare greentops under those rules, along with contrived results.

[David Barry]

That points system has been in place for 20 years though. Either this isn't a new problem, or the states are perfectly capable of not making pitches to order.

[shep]

We have just had the wettest summer for a generation. Might that not have something to do with all these greentops?

[Tony]

Shep, now that you mention it, well observed. This last summer has been a Godsend for seam & swing bowlers.

Now we need Russ & DB to appear with the figures for mean diurnal rainfall Oct to March, relative humidity, penetrometer depth v. time constant, anemomic variance and cumulo-nimbic ball weight derivatives (adjusted for seam height & ball maker stamp area as a percentage of total ball surface area).

[shep]

Obviously been wet here in Brisbane and in Melbourne, but a quick google suggests Perth has had it's wettest summer since 1984, Adelaide wettest in 37 years and Australia as a whole the second wettest summer in 111 years.

Conspiracy this ain't....

[Professor Rosseforp]

It couldn't be pitch-doctoring because it's axiomatic that Australians would never interfere with the rules or the outcome of a match.

[Bruce]

Maybe this is the right thread to start this point.

The Shrees knocked over for 86 in about 2 hours on the last day to lose in England after making 400 in the first dig.

This was the 45th occurrence of a test side being dismissed for less than 100 since the turn of the century. Compare this to 15 times in the '90s, 14 times in the '80s, 13 times in the '70s and only 9 times in the '60s.

Sure there are a lot more tests being played these days and the sample set for the 2000+ is slightly larger but no way does that account for the fact that occupying the crease for the long haul seems to be a dying art. Kumar at #3 and Jayawardene are usually pretty good in this regard, but the rest of them have probably only been practicing clearing the hip and swinging hard.

[Tony]

Good call, Bruce. The current Australian side could not stonewall its way out of a paper bag.

[Russ]

Comparative percentage of games with sub-100 by decade, starting with 2010s: 12.2%, 7.7%, 3.5%, 5.4%, 4.6%, 5.0%, 15.1% in the 1950s. Especially odd given the consensus opinion is that bowling is worse. Except for Australia's disgraceful effort in Melbourne all the occurrences in the past year and a half have been in England.

My theory, the reduction in batting quality is in line with a reduction in international batsmen having experience in county cricket. They don't know how to leave, and they chase it as it moves away.

[Russ]

A follow-up, the number of overs per wicket has declined steadily since the 1940s: 12.6, 11.1, 11.7, 10.7, 9.9, 9.6, 9.24, 9.21 in 2010s. The last time it was this low was the 1910s (also the only time before 2000 that run-rates were above 3). Truly we have entered another golden age.

[Tony]

They don't know how to leave, and they chase it as it moves away.

And don't we know it. Collapso Australia reminds me of the Demons. You know they are going to play bad, and they do.

[Hangover Black]

The Dees can use injuries as a partial excuse. I don't think Kat's achilles or Punter's thumb made any difference whatsoever to the Oz Ashes performance.

[Lou]

Injuries won't make any difference in the future. Chappell has made a point in the press about Warner being a possible long format player for Aus in the future and they used Smith at 6 in the Ashes. They want attacking players. Even if there are players with the temperament to sit on the splice - ala Wes Robinson - they are going to be laughed at in this environment.

Luckily, I enjoy a good collapse and I expect the Aussies to continue to provide them.