Nasser Hussain has claimed that Australian spin king Shane Warne would have described the MCG’s pitch as ‘unacceptable’ after England wrapped up a four-wicket victory in Melbourne inside just two days.
Friday marked the first time since 1951 that 20 wickets fell during a day of Test cricket in Australia, with this also being the shortest-ever Test match (852 deliveries) at the MCG since Australia’s clash against South Africa back in 1932, which lasted 656 balls.
With days three, four and five now scrubbed, Cricket Australia are set to incur some major financial losses, with CEO Todd Greenberg hinting that the governing body could pay more attention to how grounds staff prepare pitches in the future.
While neither side’s batters performed well in Melbourne, with Travis Head’s score of 46 being the highest of the match, the fiery MCG wicket has been lambasted by many former pros for favouring the bowlers.
Many cricket purists were left aggrieved by the fast-paced nature of the Boxing Day Test, which, when India came to town just over 12 months ago, smoothly ebbed and flowed into its fifth day, with Australia going on to secure a thrilling 184 victory.
Nasser Hussain has claimed that Australian spin king Shane Warne would not have found the MCG’s pitch ‘acceptable’ after England wrapped up a four-wicket victory in Melbourne inside just two days
It was a similar story to the one that unfolded in Perth, with this now being the second time in three months that we’ve witnessed a two-day Test. You’ll have to go back 104 years to 1921 to find the last time a match was played out in two days between England and Australia.
This week, groundskeepers had left 10mm of grass on the MCG wicket, with multiple former greats, including Hussain and Michael Atherton, hitting out at the preparations, noting that Victoria icon Warne, who sadly passed away in 2022, would not have been happy.
‘I’m sitting thinking of this great ground and our great friend and you’ve done a piece about him, Shane Warne,’ Hussain told Sky Sports.
‘I don’t think he would have thought that was acceptable.
‘He probably wouldn’t have bowled an over!’ Michael Atherton added, noting how the pitch was set up for Australia’s pace bowlers.
‘He always said if it seems, it spins… but he probably wouldn’t have got on!’
Tributes were paid to the Aussie legend, on days one and two of the Test match, with players and fans inside the MCG doffing their caps to Warne at 3:50pm on Friday and Saturday – a nod to the Victoria spinner being the 350th Aussie Test cricketer.
Hussain responded: ‘No, because the seamers were doing so much damage. He would have got on at some stage.
‘But I don’t think it’s acceptable not to have spin at all and having so much movement in the surface.
After England sealed victory inside two days, Hussain claimed that Warne (pictured, top) would have been one of many to criticise the MCG pitch
Twenty wickets fell on day one of the MCG Test, with this also being the shortest match to be played at the MCG since 1932
‘It was farcical at times, and when things are farcical, it is thrilling to watch.
‘But your point is a good one, there are traditionalists in Test match cricket who like the ebbs and flows and the slow build.
‘That was not slow that was cricket in fast forward. And we have enough of that. Whether it be T20, T10, the Hundred, we have that. There will be Big Bash tonight or tomorrow night…
‘This [the MCG] was supposed to have 90,000 fans in every day, and it was supposed to build slowly.
‘That didn’t happen, but what did happen was England finally, after 15 years have the win.’
Ben Stokes was equally critical of the wicket, claiming there would be uproar if that wicket had been built elsewhere in the world.
‘Being brutally honest, that’s not really what you want,’ Stokes said. ‘Boxing Day Test match. You don’t want a game finishing in less than two days. Not ideal.
‘But you can’t change it once you start the game and you’ve just got to play what’s in front of you.
Hussain (pictured) claimed that we have more than ‘enough’ fast cricket with so many short formats squished into the schedule already
‘But I’m pretty sure if that was somewhere else in the world, there’d be hell on. Not the best thing for games that should be played over five days. But we played a type of cricket that ended up getting the job done.’
Cricket Australia could now be set to lose $25million (£12.44m) in tickets from days three and four and broadcasting revenue.
‘A short Test is bad for business,’ Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg told SEN, reflecting on the match.
‘I would like to see a slightly broader balance between the bat and the ball. I thought yesterday slightly favoured the ball.’
Greenberg added that Cricket Australia could start keeping a closer eye on how pitches are being prepared for Test matches in the future.
‘The batters have some ownership in some of that, it’s not all around the pitch, but we’ve got some challenges.’
On Friday, England’s top four batters, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell and Joe Root, managed to score just eight runs between them.
Barring scores of 46 and 24 it was a similar story for Australia’s top batters, with Jake Weatherald, Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja all failing to get into double figures.
Even Ben Stokes (second from right) slammed the wicket, claiming there ‘would be hell’ if the MCG pitch had been prepared elsewhere
Sir Alastair Cook was one of several other pundits to agree. While he added that the batters had underperformed, the former England skipper told BBC Test Match Special that the pitch was: ‘Too heavily weighted towards the bowlers.
‘They didn’t have to work that hard for wickets. Could both sides have batted better? Yes.
‘But I was watching some of the bowling on that pitch and I was thinking: “How do you face that?”
‘Mitchell Starc was bowling round the wicket, some were nipping miles that way and some nipping miles the other way. I don’t know how you hit it. It’s a bit of an unfair contest.’
