2025-2026 Summer of Cricket

Macca89 said:
We batted poorly but the pitch has definitely flattened out today. We should have batted long and deep today but besides maybe head and boland l, everyone else played poor shots
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Absolutely. Can somewhat forgive Weatherald as well, it swung back a long way.
 
Check in on your cricket loving children everyone.

There are children who have been born and are nearly finished high school who have not seen Australia lose to England in Australia.

Make sure they know this was a one off, and England still suck.
 
“Are you not entertained?” said Maximus Decimus Stokes.

Not really.

I’ve often thought that to maintain a relevance in the post T20 world the 50 over game should be split over two innings so if a team fails in their first innings they can go hell for leather in the second. It turns out Australia and England have decided to turn Test cricket into that form anyway.

Let’s hope for a better balance between bat and ball in the Sydney Test. Is it still a spin friendly pitch? If so, I wonder if England will pick Bashir and Jacks?
 
That was coming.

I don’t think we have been that good. Our batting has been pretty poor. Head (do we call him an opened now?) and Carey have done very well. Maybe Khawaja too. But we have been far from our best. Our bowlers have bailed us out a few times.

England have just been worse, and their inability to shift styles when the score required. IMO, yesterday was the first time they haven’t capitulated when the game has shifted to their favour.

I don’t know what they were thinking with the pitch. Lefty mentioned earlier they were scared of the cracking on day 4/5.
Some of my favourite memories are watching day 5 with cracks galore, watching spinners and fast bowlers alike, aim for the cracks.
In my mind, a pitch should be batter friendly for 2-3 days. Then start to shift. Perhaps easier said than done.

But Cricket Australia must be losing a load of money. Probably 150,000 tickets refunded now for the MCG alone. At $45 a ticket (quick google) that’s $6.7M.

I think we are in a world of trouble when we start to lose Smith, Khawaja, Cummins, Starc and Lyon to retirement.
 
Macca89 said:
They were saying 10mil in losses
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Crazy.
To think that this was largely due to the pitch.

I’d love to know the inside word on pitch politics.

If this is solely determined by MCG ground staff, the Australian team coach/captain, or does Cricket Australia consult MCG on what they want and what shapes that decision eg winning matches vs 5 day test etc.

There’s not too many sports where you can manipulate the surface so much and have it impact play. At the end of the day, both teams have to play on it.
 
I read the curator left more grass on the pitch anticipating day 4 and 5 wear and tear.

Safe to say I doubt we see a 10mm grass pitch again.
 
10 million is peanuts if the reported 30k english tourists is correct.
It isn't money that goes directly cricket australia, but 30k tourists spending big dollars travelling around the country is 100s of millions into the economy, not to mention Australians travelling around as well.
The tourist board and state governments will flip them 10 mill to do it again tomorrow if they could organise it.
 
Kurriboy said:
How is every other country in the world getting this soo wrong? 🤔
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I can see both perspectives, on one hand the amount of runs scored is most important and should go first, but on the other hand the number of wickets is most important and should go first.
 
Thieves Like Us said:
“Are you not entertained?” said Maximus Decimus Stokes.

Not really.

I’ve often thought that to maintain a relevance in the post T20 world the 50 over game should be split over two innings so if a team fails in their first innings they can go hell for leather in the second. It turns out Australia and England have decided to turn Test cricket into that form anyway.

Let’s hope for a better balance between bat and ball in the Sydney Test. Is it still a spin friendly pitch? If so, I wonder if England will pick Bashir and Jacks?
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Last year sydney was the greenest wicket of the summer. No team scored over 185 in any innings and the game was over inside 3 days.

And nathon lyon bowled 6 overs for the entire match
 
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Brett Lee inducted into the Hall of Fame is a funny one.
I keep reading articles about how he was our fastest bowler ever and how good his record was, but my memory of him was he was a bit of a flash in the pan with good speed, but poor control and very little going for him apart from speed.
The "legend of Brett Lee" seems to have grown and grown.
At the same time, guys like Terry Alderman and Bruce Reid were fantastic bowlers who i'd pick ahead of Lee every time, but you never hear of them now.
 
He was a very good ODI bowler. Had a strike rate of 29. He had McGrath and Warne for most of his career and was mainly used as a strike bowler. He had a bettter strike rate in test cricket than Reid Alderman and better longevity. If there was a tour to England though I’d pick alderman over Lee at the drop of a hat
 
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