Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg has urged curators at major venues to prepare flatter pitches for the coming summer, saying a recent spate of two-day Test matches is hurting the sport commercially and eroding the fabric of Test cricket.
Speaking in Durban, Greenberg confirmed he had addressed the annual conference of groundsmen, an appearance he acknowledged was unusual for a chief executive. He said he had told curators that if they were unsure which way to prepare a pitch, they should err on the side of flatter, with perhaps slightly less grass, because the game had evolved and wickets had not kept pace.
Greenberg said he was worried about short Test matches over time. While a one-off two-day result could be managed, he said, a continuing trend would hurt cricket commercially and undermine the balance of a format in which a hard-fought draw was as valuable as a win or a loss.
His comments follow three of Australia’s past seven Tests ending inside two days, including the Perth and Melbourne Ashes matches, which were estimated to have cost around $15 million in lost revenue. The Boxing Day Test was over in two days.
Greenberg’s unusual visit to the groundsmen’s conclave was intended to send a message. He said curators had been meeting for decades and it had been a while since they had seen a chief executive attend.