‘It’s out of our control’: SCG curator’s pitch reveal — and one question that is ‘hard to answer’

Sydney Cricket Ground curator Adam Lewis said there will be six millimetres of grass on the pitch for the fifth Ashes Test, declaring his team is hopeful of a result that is a “great balance for bat and ball”.

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Lewis is under plenty of pressure to produce a high-quality pitch after the International Cricket Council handed down an ‘unsatisfactory’ rating of the MCG pitch that saw less than two days play.

The Boxing Day Test wasn’t the only one this Ashes series to see a swift ending, with the first Test in Perth also coming to an end inside two days.

It has Lewis and the rest of his team on high alert, although the SCG curator told reporters on Friday he isn’t paying any attention to the headlines.

“To be totally honest with you, I don’t listen to media, I haven’t read the papers,” he said.

“I try and steer clear of all that. I’m a real positive person. I’ve got to keep my team positive. I’ve got a young team and I’m just trying to make it most enjoyable for the guys as possible.

“We want it to be a five-day Test.”

To some extent, however, Lewis conceded producing a perfect pitch is not entirely in his control considering the weather gods could ultimately have a say on how it fares.

The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting a shower or two on Monday when the series gets underway and while the rest of the week is expected to be sunny, that could of course change quite quickly.

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After all, the Sydney Test has historically been susceptible to wet weather.

“The thing with Sydney is the weather. It’s out of our control,” Lewis said.

“We’re just trying to prepare a pitch that’s great balance for bat and ball.”

History, however, has also previously indicated that the SCG is Australia’s most spin-friendly surface. But that reputation was flipped on its head last year as the seamers did plenty of damage in the Test between Australia and India.

Lewis found it difficult to weigh in on whether that is the new reality.

“I think that’s a hard one to answer,” he said.

“When you speak to a cricket from yesteryear, conditions were totally different. So now we’re seeing more grass on the pitch and we’ve seen sort of a wet season the last six years. We really need the climate to come in hot weather, break down, and then bring that spin into play. “We’ve noticed this year in our Shield pitches that it’s actually taking spin early. So we’re hoping for that come the Test.”

While the Boxing Day disaster made plenty of headlines, with Cricket Australia estimated to lose around $10 million without play on the final three days, Lewis said it wouldn’t change his team’s approach.

“No, not for me,” he said.

“We work really closely with Cricket Australia on all our preparation. Not just on the pitch but the outfield. We keep them across everything that we’re doing.

“But no, we’ve got our own weather, our climate. Everything’s different in New South Wales compared to Melbourne, to Brisbane and even to Adelaide.

“We talk to the curators. We’re on the phone every second day. Not really talking about pitch preparation but just supporting each other.

“It’s very hard for me to talk about a pitch in Melbourne when the climate’s totally different up here. So no, we’ve got our processes. We’ve prepared for our Shield pitches. That’s where we get our practice. We’re just going on history and the weather. The weather’s the main part.”