{"id":374960,"date":"2025-12-29T10:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T10:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/374960\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T10:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T10:56:09","slug":"official-mcg-pitch-rating-revealed-after-backlash-following-boxing-day-ashes-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/374960\/","title":{"rendered":"Official MCG pitch rating revealed after backlash following Boxing Day Ashes Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Melbourne Cricket Ground pitch, where England secured a four-wicket victory over Australia in a dramatic two-day Ashes Test<\/a>, has been officially deemed \u2018unsatisfactory\u2019 by the International Cricket Council (ICC).<\/p>\n

The unusual conditions led to a swift conclusion and are now set to cost Cricket Australia an estimated \u00a35 million.<\/p>\n

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Head curator Matthew Page expressed his “state of shock” at the rapid collapse of the match, which saw 10mm of grass on the surface, providing lavish movement for seam bowlers.<\/p>\n

Even England captain Ben Stokes<\/a>, despite his team’s win, remarked there would be “hell on” if such a pitch were to be produced elsewhere in the world, while ex-England skipper Michael Vaughan branded the pitch a \u201cjoke\u201d.<\/p>\n

Match referee Jeff Crowe confirmed the ICC’s second-lowest rating, stating: “The MCG pitch was too much in favour of the bowlers. With 20 wickets falling on the first day, 16 on the second day and no batter even reaching a half-century, the pitch was \u2018unsatisfactory\u2019 as per the guidelines and the venue gets one demerit point.”<\/p>\n

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\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben Stokes admitted there would be \u2018hell on\u2019 if the Melbourne pitch was produced somewhere else in the world (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Pitches are categorised as ‘very good’, ‘satisfactory’, ‘unsatisfactory’, or ‘unfit’, with six demerit points over five years leading to a 12-month ban from international matches.<\/p>\n

This ruling contrasts with the first Test in Perth last month, which also concluded in two days as Australia took an early lead in the five-match series, yet its pitch received the ICC\u2019s highest ‘very good’ rating.<\/p>\n

England’s consolation win, which leaves them trailing 3-1 ahead of the final Test in Sydney, carries significant financial repercussions.<\/p>\n

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A sell-out crowd of over 90,000 was anticipated for day three, meaning the premature end will trigger an avalanche of refunds and substantial losses from merchandise, food, and drink sales.<\/p>\n

England will now head to Sydney for the final Test, which begins on January 4, aiming to finish the series on a high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Melbourne Cricket Ground pitch, where England secured a four-wicket victory over Australia in a dramatic two-day Ashes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[160126,2840,160127,703,49,48,160125,160124,157584,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-374960","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-ashes-test","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-ben-stokes","11":"tag-boxing","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-cricket-australia","15":"tag-international-cricket-council","16":"tag-melbourne-cricket-ground","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}