Australian cricket commentators are being called out for so-called hypocrisy after the Boxing Day Test debacle.
Australia was rolled twice in 80 overs as England won its first Test on Aussie soil for more than 14 years.
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There has been a savage reaction from across the cricket world after the historic carnage that unfolded on the MCG pitch as England won with four wickets in the shed.
While the MCG curator faced reporters and attempted to explain the volatile deck, cricket commentators have torched Australia for failing to provide a pitch worthy of Test cricket.
England captain Ben Stokes led the backlash on Saturday, declaring there would be “hell” if such pitch conditions were provided for Test cricket outside of Australia.
“I’m pretty sure if that was somewhere else in the world there’d be hell on,” he said.
“It is not the best thing for games that should be played over five days but we played a type of cricket that ended up getting the job done.”
He also told the BBC he will not hold back when giving match referee Jeff Crowe his assessment of the pitch.
“With 36 wickets in less than two days and no total over 200, I think you can read into that a lot,” he said.
“If that was another condition somewhere else and that happened, you probably would get a pasting.”
A social media account attributed to former ICC umpire Richard Kettleborough interpreted Stokes’ comments to be an act of “calling out hypocrites”.
“If this happened in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka or Bangladesh, everyone would start screaming about the pitch”.
The charge of hypocrisy is somewhat bizarre given how many people have indeed complained about the MCG pitch.
Conditions during Australia’s recent tours of India have particularly raised eyebrows with the Board of Control for Cricket in India being accused of deliberately doctoring pitches to suit the team’s spin bowlers.
It led to mayhem during Australia’s Tour in 2023 where Australia was rolled for 109.
At the time Michael Clarke called the conditions “c**p”.
India cricket officials were also widely slammed when the semi-final of the 2023 ODI World Cup was played on a pitch that had already been used earlier in the tournament.
Now it is Australia’s turn to come under fire after MCG curator Matt Page faced reporters on Sunday to try to explain the farcical wicket.
England cricket greats, including Kevin Pietersen, have torched Australian cricket for its failure.
“Utter shambles and complete disrespect to the greatest form of the game,” he posted on X on Saturday during Australia’s second innings collapse.
“India ALWAYS gets hammered when wickets fall like crazy on day 1 of a Test and so I hope that Australia gets the same scrutiny! Fair is fair!”
Indian great Aakash Chopra also called out the double standards early on Day 2.
“Not a single over of spin in 1.5 days of a Test match,” he posted on X.
“27 wickets have fallen already. Imagine the meltdown if not a single over of pace was bowled for that long in the subcontinent.”
Mark Waugh said on Kayo Sports: “There’s got to be a contest, there’s got to be a balance. It’s gone too far towards the bowlers in the past three or four years.”
Alastair Cook called it “a bit of an unfair contest”.
Michael Vaughan tweeted after Australia lost six wickets in the opening session on day two: “This pitch is a joke. This is selling the game short. The players/broadcasters and more importantly the fans.”
He told the BBC pitches like the one served up at the MCG are “going to kill Test cricket”.
England great Darren Gough congratulated England on its win, but also posted: “This has to go down as probably one of the worst ashes series I’ve seen for lots of reasons.
“The main one — 13 days cricket for 4 test matches”.
Former Aussie cricket coach Mickey Arthur posed: “What has happened to the pitches in Australia-not good enough!
“The pinnacle test of the Australian summer over in 2 days! This and the result in Perth puts test cricket at risk.”
Leading cricket reporter Bharat Sundaresan said the Test will “remain in infamy”.
CricViz’s overall PitchViz rating for this Test is 8.9 out of 10. This high score indicates tougher batting conditions. This is the highest for any Test in Australia since 2006, CODE Sports reports.
The pressure is on SCG ground staff to deliver a pitch that will see at least three days of cricket when the fifth Test begins January 4.
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