Curator happy with MCG pitch

Updated December 23, 2012 12:43:35

New MCG head curator David Sandurski has some good news for Australian batsman Phil Hughes.

The pitch he has prepared for the Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka is very similar to the one on which Hughes compiled a match-winning 158 for South Australia in last month's Sheffield Shield match against Victoria at the MCG.

That century was one of several significant innings this season by the 24-year-old Hughes, which culminated in his return to the Test side for the series against Sri Lanka, which Australia leads 1-0.

Sandurski - who will be making his Boxing Day debut after moving from Brisbane's Allan Border Field three months ago - admits he will probably be more nervous than the players before the start of play on one.

But he is confident the pitch will be a good one.

"We try and get an even contest between bat and ball," Sandurski said on Sunday.

"You don't want it too lopsided one way or the other.

"So far this one is tracking similarly to the South Australian Shield match which had a bit in there with the new ball.

"But once you get stuck in there, like Phil Hughes did, you can go on and make a big score."

The weather gods have been mostly kind to Sandurski, although there is some rain forecast over the next two days ahead of a sunny Boxing Day.

The Sri Lankans are hopeful that the wickets in Melbourne and Sydney for the final two Tests of the series will provide assistance to their spin attack led by their left-arm orthodox bowler Rangana Herath.

"A lot of the turn you will get here is from the footmarks," said Sandurski.

"As the match progresses into day four and five you can look for the spinners to come into it a bit.

"But I think early on it will be suiting the quicks a bit more."

AAP

Tags: cricket, sport, melbourne-3000, vic, australia, sri-lanka

First posted December 23, 2012 12:43:35

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Cricket Tasmania defends Hobart pitch

Updated December 13, 2012 07:02:19

Cricket Tasmania officials on Wednesday defended the pitch for this week's first Test against Sri Lanka, saying they are confident it will provide an even surface.

Following an upgrade of the wicket and outfield in August, three Sheffield Shield games have produced an average first-innings score of less than 100.

As both teams trained on Wednesday ahead of Friday's first day's play, the pitch was bathed in green.

CT boss David Johnson denied Hobart was in any danger of having Cricket Australia move the match to another venue because of fears the pitch would be a raging green-top for seam bowlers to wreak havoc.

"I am very confident the team has prepared an even surface that should provide a great battle between bat and ball come Friday," CT venue operations manager Stephen McMullen said in a statement on Wednesday.

CT chairman Tony Harrison said curator Marcus Pamplin and his staff had done a fantastic job re-surfacing Bellerive Oval.

"The CT Board has full confidence in our curating team and is confident that they have produced a quality Test wicket," Harrison said.

Cricket Australia venue operations manager Sean Cary said the new centre-wicket block had provided more bounce and carry than the old pitch.

"This is due to the rye grass and new clay mix. However the new wicket has also shown that when batsmen apply themselves early, runs can be scored when they get set," Cary said.

Pamplin said the process of the clay settling down would take some time.

"But we believe we are in a far better position for a more consistent surface than at the start of the season," he said.

"On the back of a good cricket pitch for the last Sheffield Shield game, we think the Test pitch should play better and provide a good contest."

AAP

Tags: sport, cricket, hobart-7000, tas

First posted December 12, 2012 17:37:53

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Aussies cash in on flat pitch and opposition

Raman Goraya

Updated January 24, 2012 22:46:30

New Test, different venue, but it was the same old story as in-form Australian pair Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting piled on the misery for touring India on day one at the Adelaide Oval.

Century-makers Clarke and Ponting took advantage of a typically flat Adelaide wicket and a toothless Indian attack to combine for an unbeaten 251-run partnership that put Australia in total control of the fourth Test at 3 for 335.

Captain Clarke finished on 140 not out, his fifth century since taking over as skipper, while the revitalised Ponting went to stumps on 137 on a day where he passed 13,000 Test runs and cracked a fourth consecutive century against India in Adelaide.

While the Australian pair continued to stretch their summer stats in impressive fashion, the lacklustre Indians provided little to no contest for the majority of the day despite reducing the hosts to 2 for 26 and then 3 for 84 after being forced into the field.

"It wasn't an ideal start on that sort of wicket, but we fought back exceptionally well," Ponting told Grandstand.

Ponting hardly offered a chance on his way to his 41st Test century, and in doing so notched his sixth ton in Adelaide, matching his SCG tally, and joined Viv Richards and Sir Garfield Sobers in reaching an equal-highest eight hundreds against India.

"Those milestones are nice, but more importantly we have to set up what should be a really good Test match for us," Ponting added.

"What we know about Adelaide is a lot happens late in the games.

"We have to make sure we win the first hour tomorrow, and make our first innings is a really big one.

"With the wicket being as dry as it is, I'll be surprised if it doesn't play a few tricks later in the game as far as variable bounce is concerned."

Stand-in skipper Virender Sehwag, leading the tourists after MS Dhoni's suspension, took an early risk and threw the ball to returning off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in just the fourth over of the morning.

The unconventional move paid dividends with Ashwin helping tie the dangerous David Warner down for 15 balls without scoring before the left-hander was trapped lbw for 8 by Zaheer Khan.

Ashwin then chimed in by beating the porous defence of an out-of-sorts Shaun Marsh (3) before luring Ed Cowan (30) into a false shot to cover.

But that was as far as Sehwag's tactics - which were largely flawed from that point on - got the tourists, as Clarke and Ponting added 116 and 121 runs in the final two sessions without the loss of a wicket.

In similar fashion to their fourth-wicket stand which reached 288 in Sydney, the partnership took a stranglehold on the match with their aggressive batting, flaying India's defeated bowlers to all parts of the iconic ground.

Ponting said he rated his innings better than his knock at the SCG, but said that was mainly due to the batsmen-friendly conditions.

"There wasn't anything that happened off the wicket at all from the seamers or the spinners," he said.

"I'm pretty excited where things are heading for me. I've spent a bit of time in the middle right through this summer and a couple of hundreds in the last couple of games has been good for me."

Upstart Umesh Yadav copped the brunt of the swift riposte, finishing with figures of 0 for 87 from just 12 overs and conceding a brutal 46 runs from 37 deliveries to the punishing Ponting.

Clarke went after spinner Ashwin with similar disdain while Zaheer (1 for 52) and, in particular, the luckless Ishant Sharma (0 for 52) ran in tirelessly for limited rewards.

The Australian skipper has now scored an impregnable 519 runs at an average of 173 in just four innings this series.

In stark contrast, team-mate Marsh's Test career hangs by a thread.

The Western Australian scored 284 runs in his first four Test innings, but since then has accumulated just 17 in his last six with scores of 0, 0, 3, 0, 11 and 3.

Tags: cricket, sport, adelaide-5000, sa, australia, india

First posted January 24, 2012 19:43:44

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WACA staff invade pitch before Test

Updated January 13, 2012 14:06:04

Cricket Australia (CA) is playing down Indian media claims that protocols have been breached by officials drinking alcohol on the WACA pitch, ahead of the third Test between Australia and India.

Vision has been broadcast on Indian television of more than a dozen WACA officials standing or lying on the pitch last night.

Some of the group took the covers off the wicket and sat on the pitch drinking beer for several minutes before replacing the covers.

The ground staff were barefooted, but uncovering the pitch before play violates ICC guidelines.

Indian media claim the 'pitch party' violates the ICC's code of conduct, but a spokesman for the WACA says it is a tradition for the ground staff to toast the pitch.

He says the curator Cam Sutherland was there last night and does not believe the pitch has been affected.

A CA spokesman says the WACA has given a 100 per cent guarantee that the pitch will be good to go and the match will proceed as planned.

The umpires will inspect the pitch this morning.

Indian TV stations filmed the incident while preparing previews for Friday's crucial Test match.

India's BCCI has urged CA to investigate the issue with senior official Rajeev Shukla quoted by Indian media as saying: "It's a serious matter and the Australian cricket board should look into it.

"It is the responsibility of the host cricket board to maintain the wicket. It is their prime responsibility."

Tags: cricket, sport, perth-6000, wa, australia

First posted January 13, 2012 08:42:53

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WACA pitch controversy just a storm in a beer cup

Corbin Middlemas

Updated January 13, 2012 16:34:43

Amid all the palaver in the lead-up to the Perth Test, one man who has seemingly been fielding as many questions as the two camps is WACA curator Cam Sutherland.

Thirteen months ago, Sutherland received widespread accolades after producing a splendid Test strip for the Ashes series.

As was so long desired, Sutherland produced a hard, fast and bouncy wicket, to rekindle the characteristics synonymous with the ground that had seemed lost.

As soon as the focus shifted from Sydney to Perth, so too did the interest circulate around the curator out west, hopeful he could reproduce a similar wicket to that of last summer.

Sutherland spent the week prior to the Perth Test answering questions from journalists at press conferences and making in-studio radio appearances discussing his prized number five strip on the WACA square.

This pitch has been used just once since the third Ashes Test. That occasion was the Warriors opening domestic match of the summer, a one-day fixture against Tasmania.

In the truest indication that there was still life in the wicket, Ben Hilfenhaus delivered a short pitched, rising delivery that ballooned over the wicketkeeper's head, and down to the boundary.

With preparation near complete, Sutherland and co found themselves at the epicentre of a media storm on the eve of the Test.

Members of the WACA Ground staff and admin gathered on the pitch to share a celebratory beverage and toast the week ahead, a tradition before the Test in these parts.

Vision captured by Indian television networks sent the visiting media into a frenzy.

"A picture can speak a thousand words is the old saying and that's probably the case here," Sutherland told ABC Perth's 702 morning program.

He went on to explain the sequence of events that unfolded as the sun set on the west coast.

"I was the one who removed the covers, I was one out doing the work initially and then a couple of my staff came out and joined me," he said.

"We were the ones that were lying on the pitch and that seems to be the heart of the issue.

"Yes, we were working on it. There were a couple of little blemishes that we could just tie off on that night that would give everything time to settle."

In relation to those few wandering around on the wicket, stubby in hand, some of whom shadow batting: "We thought there would be no one there and our hard working staff behind the scenes in the offices are mostly females and don't get out to the wicket and probably don't understand the Test wicket.

"But they just love the night before, to be able to go out and say, 'Well done boys, this looks great' or whatever."

"Some of them walked across, which you saw, which was a bit unfortunate but ten minutes later they were gone. We were still out there an hour later doing our thing."

Under ICC regulations, the WACA Ground staff can continue to work on the wicket until the morning of the opening day's play.

"We've been made to look unprofessional and we were doing a professional thing," Sutherland added.

"We were trying to get it as best as possible for both sides today, and it's been turned a bit on its head."

Sutherland joined the WACA as chief curator prior to the 2005-06 season.

As the founder and principal of a sports turf company, Sutherland's reputation for having a wealth of knowledge of local conditions preceded him.

The picturesque Richardson Park, home of the South Perth Cricket Club, with views of the Swan River across the freeway and boarded by the Perth Zoo, was one of the grounds under Sutherland's care.

Since taking over as curator, the ground's pitch rating substantially improved to be ranked inside the top five decks in the competition.

Tags: cricket, sport, perth-6000, wa, australia

First posted January 13, 2012 16:19:49

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Cricket's winning sales pitch

Alan Kohler

Updated January 11, 2012 09:31:36

Marketers and their CEOs everywhere are watching what James Sutherland and Mike McKenna are doing to Australian cricket and taking notes, and not just because they like the game.

Sutherland and McKenna, CEO and head of marketing respectively at Cricket Australia, are completely transforming the sport's demographics and revenues - almost entirely through marketing.

In the process they are having a big impact on the broadcasting business as well.

It is a fascinating demonstration of the enduring power of a well-constructed marketing strategy, as well as the importance of live sport in the age of digital media.

Whatever the Test cricket purists might think of the Big Bash League (and count yours truly among them), it is clearly working.

The gate crowds are already beating rugby league and the pay TV audience is averaging 293,000 per game.

Foxtel's ratings are up 20 per cent purely because of Twenty20 cricket.

Cricket Australia had two problems: the audience was skewed towards older males and the main "product" involved games against other countries that were hard to control - that is, they could only happen when the other national teams were available.

Cricket is apparently Australia's most popular sport, but only among those over 25 and the followers are, or rather were, two-thirds male.

Among 15-25 year olds and women, the feedback was that the games just took too long.

There had been a Twenty20 state competition going for five years, but it was limping along, failing to get much traction.

In August last year Cricket Australia received a report on the game from Don Argus and then the first ever national conference of all state and territory associations was held to discuss the future.

Out of that came a reconstructed 20-over competition with eight teams instead of six (two from NSW and Victoria) and each with new names and uniforms, and a smattering of star players like Shane Warne and the West Indies' Chris Gayle.

A salary cap of $1 million, in total, per team was set, but that only applies to cash direct from the club.

The big-name players are able to get much more from sponsorships and other payments.

Matthew Dwyer, the national sales director of Mars Confectionary, was brought in to run the sales and marketing effort and he quickly put together a team of 17 marketers and sales executives. By the way, Dwyer was chosen because he knows how to market to kids.

To help fund them it was decided to sell up to 49 per cent equity in two of the teams - Melbourne Renegades and Sydney Thunder - to investors. Credit Suisse was hired to do that and Information Memoranda were circulated among potential investors.

But unlike the Indian sale of IPL franchises, the process didn't attract very big offers, perhaps because control was not on offer - only a minority stake.

Also there was a risk that the cricket business would entirely lose its not-for-profit status for tax purposes if part of the game operated at a profit to service outside investors.

Anyway, Cricket Australia and the six state associations that own CA decided not to go ahead with the sales, and to retain full ownership of all eight teams (although most have outside directors).

Now McKenna says it's likely that none of the teams will be sold at all and that they will eventually be set up as clubs. Memberships in some of the teams are already being sold.

The result, however, is that the $15-20 million needed to fund the Big Bash League has had to come entirely from Cricket Australia's resources, which has been a strain.

One of the differences between cricket and other sports is that the contracted players get a fixed percentage (26 per cent) of revenue, shared 55/45 between the national and state players.

It means, in effect, that the organisers and marketers of the sport are in a joint venture with the players and their own organisation, the Australian Cricketers Association, and everyone is highly motivated to get the revenue up.

Another thing the success of the Big Bash League has created for Cricket Australia is a lot of complexity: most sports have just one game with same rules played at various levels - local, state, national and international.

Cricket has all those levels, plus three different games - five-day Tests, one-day games, both international and domestic, and 20-over games. They all use bats and balls, but the different lengths create entirely different games.

As you'd expect from marketers, the team at Cricket Australia sees this as an opportunity, not a problem.

"We had Coke, then Diet Coke, and now we've got Coke Zero," said one.

And it's true: cricket is in the unique position of having several different games to appeal to different audiences, including one that is obviously attracting the next generation while they hang onto old guys like me.

Maybe one of the forms of the game will eventually fade and die (most likely 50-over one-day cricket), but so far it's still rating well and attracting crowds.

And as we all know, customers are always right.

Alan Kohler is Editor in Chief of Business Spectator and Eureka Report, as well as host of Inside Business and finance presenter on ABC News. View his full profile here.

Tags: business-economics-and-finance, cricket, sport, economic-trends, twenty20

First posted January 11, 2012 08:41:43

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Bouncy pitch awaits struggling Indians

Updated January 08, 2012 11:19:19

Australian coach Mickey Arthur predicts India is jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire as it attempts to save the Test series in Perth.

MS Dhoni's men were smashed by an innings and 68 runs on a batter-friendly pitch in Sydney to go 2-0 down in the four-match campaign.

And with India under siege, Arthur cannot wait to set his pace attack loose at the WACA on Friday and finish the job.

"Certainly in the first innings (in Sydney), they didn't look comfortable," Arthur said of the Indian batsmen.

"I thought they looked comfortable in the second innings ... (but) this is a wicket (Sydney), and Adelaide, that most resembles the subcontinent.

"The WACA is going to be totally different.

"There'll be a lot of pace, a lot of bounce in the WACA wicket. It'll be interesting to see how they go there."

Curator Cameron Sutherland confirmed Arthur's assessment, saying he believes the deck will play similar to last year's Ashes Test, when paceman Mitchell Johnson ripped through England with 9 for 82 for the match to inspire Australia to a 267-run win.

The Test wicket has already been used once this summer, when Tasmania defeated Western Australia by 67 runs in a low-scoring one-day game in October.

"It had good pace and bounce in that game. (Ben) Hilfenhaus bowled a bouncer that went over the keeper's head, so there was a bit of pace and bounce about," Sutherland said.

"It's kind of a different grass we've used over the last couple of years. It's really fine.

"So even if you leave grass on it and it has a bit of colour in it, it doesn't seam excessively.

"It just gives a bit to the new ball and then it settles into a pretty good batting wicket."

Sachin Tendulkar is the only Indian batsman to have scored a Test century at the WACA, although it is not a venue India has frequented often in recent tours.

Australia will need to overcome the body blow of losing firebrand James Pattinson, who would have revelled at the fast bowler's paradise.

But in Peter Siddle, Ben Hilfenhaus and most likely Ryan Harris, Australia still has the ability and know-how to extract the most from the unique Perth conditions.

Arthur's previous appointment was coach of the Western Warriors and he is confident Australia has the plans and the cattle to get the job done.

"We can have the best-laid plans out there but you need the personnel to execute that," he said.

"Yes, we brought some planning to the team, but the players have been outstanding. The players deserve all the credit because they're the ones who've gone out there and executed."

India is likely to make a change to its batting arsenal, with Rohit Sharma in line to replace the struggling Virat Kohli in the middle order.

Sharma is yet to make his Test debut and has never played an ODI in Perth.

Arthur has made it clear the 24-year-old can expect some chin music.

"Rohit's had his challenges on wickets that bounce. He's going to go into a furnace at the WACA because there is going to be bounce there. If he gets the nod, it'll be very interesting," said Arthur, who rubbished the notion India was a team of greats rather than a great team.

"No, I'd never say that. You look at the team - they're the current World Cup holders and a (Test) team that got to number one in the world," he said.

The pressure is on India coach Duncan Fletcher, who has now presided over six straight away defeats.

Since replacing Gary Kirsten after India's victorious World Cup campaign last year, Fletcher has led his team to an embarrassing 4-0 drubbing in England backed up by two defeats in Melbourne and Sydney.

That poor form and the Zimbabwean's renowned grumpiness mean the knives are starting to come out in the Indian media and with the millions of fans back in their homeland.

It has also delighting Australian fans, who have little love for Fletcher after he led England to their 2005 Ashes triumph, but was also at the helm when Australia whitewashed the English in the following Ashes campaign Down Under.

Despite a record of seven consecutive Test defeats as a coach in Australia, Arthur fully expects Fletcher to spark his Indian team to a much-improved performance in Perth.

"I think Duncan's a fantastic coach. I think technically he's one of the best I've spoken to," Arthur said.

"He's a very proud man and he'll make sure the team's up come the Test match in Perth."

AAP

Tags: sport, cricket, perth-6000, wa, australia

First posted January 08, 2012 10:34:32

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