{"id":376433,"date":"2025-12-28T17:04:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T17:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/376433\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T17:04:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T17:04:16","slug":"mcg-curator-matthew-page-explains-boxing-day-test-disaster-two-day-result-grass-on-pitch-michael-vaughan-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/376433\/","title":{"rendered":"MCG curator Matthew Page explains Boxing Day Test disaster; Two-day result, grass on pitch, Michael Vaughan criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

MCG curator Matthew Page has fronted the media after the Boxing Day Test<\/a> copped widespread criticism from players, experts and fans across the globe.<\/p>\n

For the second time in this Ashes<\/a> series, the match finished inside two days, leaving countless fans frustrated and Cricket Australia set to lose millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

Steve Smith and Ben Stokes were both critical of the deck<\/a> in their post-game press conferences on Saturday night, while plenty of former players voiced their displeasure.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Green under the pump over ‘pre-determined rubbish’<\/a><\/p>\n

PLAYER RATINGS: Aussie trio ‘playing for their spots’ after chaotic Test<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Unbelievable’: 21-year-old quick seals BBL win on debut<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The MCG pitch gets some running repairs\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Among the most vocal critics was England great Michael Vaughan<\/a>, who dubbed the pitch a “shocker” after day one and doubled down following the match’s completion.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to kill Test cricket if we have more like this,” he told BBC’s Test Match Special.<\/p>\n

“It’s selling everyone short, it’s selling the players short. Fundamentally, they had to play on it and it wasn’t a great surface to play the game that they wanted to play.<\/p>\n

“It’s selling the broadcasters short hugely and you’re also selling the fans short and that’s really important.<\/p>\n

“If it was that the curator or groundsman had that kind of freedom to produce whatever he wants, I would think in the future that is never gonna happen.”<\/p>\n

Speaking to media outside the famous ground on Sunday morning as the fallout from the Boxing Day Test continued, the man behind the pitch was left visibly disappointed.<\/p>\n

Page admitted he was “in a state of shock” watching how the game unfolded.<\/p>\n

“We’re obviously really disappointed that it’s gone for two days,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This year we’ve produced a pitch that has favoured the bowlers more than the batters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I was in a state of shock after the first day.<\/p>\n

“To see everything that happened and 20 wickets in a day, I’ve never been involved in a Test match like it and hopefully will never be involved in a Test match like it again.<\/p>\n

“It was a rollercoaster ride for two days, to see everything unfold<\/p>\n

“A lot of the noise is obviously outside. I personally don’t read papers, I don’t watch the news – but we know that this hasn’t gone as we had planned.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Matt Page speaks about the MCG pitch\u00a0Getty\/Nine<\/p>\n

Page defended the decision to leave 10mm of grass on the pitch compared to the 7mm used last year against India, which led to a five-day contest, claiming it was to prevent deterioration and pointing out numbers from other series where more grass was left on.<\/p>\n

“This year, we’ve gone in with 10mm and we knew we were gonna get a lot of hot weather at the back-end of the game,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Our issues here with deterioration in pitches and getting very flat has been well-documented and we are very conscious of that.<\/p>\n

“Our grass is vitally important to what we do so we don’t get inconsistent bounce and we don’t get deterioration in our pitches. We’re trying to balance that contest between bat and ball over the four or five days. We left it longer because we knew we were gonna get weather at the back-end and we needed our grass.<\/p>\n

“You look back at it and it’s favoured the bowlers too much on day one and day two. If that doesn’t happen, then we set ourselves up really good for days three and four.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Steve Smith is bowled at the MCG\u00a0Cricket Australia via Getty Imag<\/p>\n

He also denied Cricket Australia had any say in how the wickets are prepared.<\/p>\n

“We have absolutely no input in here as to what sort of pitch we prepare,” Page said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MCC chief executive Stuart Fox was also on hand to address media and attempt to explain why one of the most iconic sporting events on the Australian calendar fell flat.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t think we’d be standing out here doing a press conference,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We thought we’d get out and jump on the front foot. We’re obviously disappointed that the Test has finished within two days. We didn’t plan for it and we didn’t want this to happen, so it’s obviously challenging times for us.<\/p>\n

“Back in 2017 we went through a huge review and since then, Matt and his team have done a great job and produced seven really good pitches.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, watching the commentary over the past 24 hours, this pitch clearly favoured the bowlers and hasn’t given the batters a good opportunity. We are disappointed and what it demonstrates is the really fine margins that Matt and his team are dealing with.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Josh Tongue celebrates a wicket for England\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“I’ve got all the faith in the world in Matt and his team to respond accordingly. We’ve got to take responsibility and that’s why we’re standing here today.<\/p>\n

“We bought Matt on eight years ago because he is considered one of the best, if not the best, in the country. I still believe that and I always will, he’s done a great job.<\/p>\n

“He’s disappointed today, he carries that responsibility and my job as a leader is when you believe in people, you get behind them and support them.<\/p>\n

“The thing with pitch curating is if it was that easy to get perfect, you would do the same thing every year – but there are so many variables.”<\/p>\n

Across the two days of action at the MCG, there were 36 wickets – four more than what transpired earlier in the series at Optus Stadium in another dramatic fixture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MCG curator Matthew Page has fronted the media after the Boxing Day Test copped widespread criticism from players,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-376433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}