Melbourne Cricket Ground is seam-friendly: MCG curator Matt Page

MCG curator Matt Page discusses pitch preparation for upcoming Test match, focusing on grass, seam, and bounce dynamics.

A cold wind hustled through the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). A mild drizzle ensued and on the fringes of the turf, stood the man, who tends to the venue’s surface, and is clued into the dynamics of soil and its interplay with moisture, sun and grass. A jacket and cap in place, Matt Page held court on Monday (December 23, 2024) afternoon.

In the lead-up to the fourth Test here from December 26, the MCG curator expressed his satisfaction over how the pitch has shaped up. “We have been happy with what we have served up in the last couple of years and we don’t see any reason to change that. Seven years ago, the pitch was quite flat. We sat down as an organisation and said we want to create more exciting Tests, so we leave more grass on now, and that brings the bowlers into it a bit more, but the surface is still good for batting once the new ball goes off. We have been running at six millimetres of grass and we will monitor that,” Page said.

As for the spinners, he added: “It doesn’t really break up for spin. Look at our long format games over the last four or five years and they were probably more seam friendly. We are never going to be as quick as Perth and Brisbane, but over the last few years we have managed to get some pace in it. If you are a fast bowler, you probably will get excited. It will seam around the whole game with the new ball.”

Asked about the variable bounce encountered on pitches that Rohit Sharma’s men trained on, Page explained: “We prepare the practice pitches three days before the game and if India had turned up today, they would have got fresh ones. It is standard procedure.” And that hopefully would end the debate over why India did not get fresh ones for nets during the weekend.