Sydney Cricket Ground. (FILE)
Former Australian cricketer Tim Paine slammed the pitch for the final Test at Sydney Cricket Ground. The Test ended up in two-and-a-half days with none of the teams reaching the 200 run-mark. The surface was seaming around throughout the Test match and showed signs of inconsistent bounce as the cracks opened up.
“It meant batting relied more on luck than skill and although the ICC gave it a satisfactory rating, I would have given it the lowest possible rating and effectively placed the SCG on notice: dish up something like that again and you will be suspended from hosting international cricket,” Paine wrote in his column vs News Corp via Yahoo.
Earlier ICC has rated the Sydney pitch as ‘satisfactory,’ which is the second-highest category. “The SCG has been striving to bring out their unique characteristics of early pace and bounce before the pitch wears and spins. This year was a step in the right direction to achieving this which provided an exciting finish to the Border Gavaskar Trophy series and bodes well for the Ashes summer in 2025-26 said Peter Roach, CA Head of Cricket Operations and Scheduling.
However, Paine has different views on the surface: “It may seem extreme but this isn’t a new phenomenon in Sydney. The Sheffield Shield pitch dished up when Tasmania played at the SCG last season was disgraceful. It is time to shape up or face the consequences,” he wrote.
Another former Australia cricketer Michael Clarke too slammed the pitch. “The SCG is my favourite ground in the world, it is my home ground, and I hate saying this out loud, but that’s the worst pitch I’ve ever seen in Sydney,” Clarke told ESPN’s Around The Wicket. “I didn’t think it was a good cricket wicket, balls not just going up off the surface but shooting low at the end of day two.”
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