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MCC chief, MCG curator face the music after two-day Test
SEN • December 28th, 2025 11:30 am
Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) chief Stuart Fox and MCG chief curator Matt Page have faced the music after a disappointing two-day Test at the iconic Melbourne venue.
The Test had 36 wickets fall for 572 runs off 142 overs with England winning by four wickets.
Fox spoke of his disappointment in the key Test match ending so early.
“This pitch has clearly favoured the bowlers and hasn’t given the batters a good opportunity to get set,” Fox said.
“So we’re obviously disappointed. What it demonstrates is the really fine margins that Matt and his team are dealing with.
“We had some circumstances leading into the Test that were difficult, particularly around weather.
“We do understand the impact this has had on, particularly the fans, and obviously one of our key stakeholders in Cricket Australia.
“We don’t plan for this to happen, we’re disappointed and we’ll move on.
“We’ll respond quickly. Matt and his team have done it before and he’s produced some good pitches, so I’ve got all the faith in the world in Matt and his team.”
Page explained the difficulties and challenges he and his team faced in preparing this Melbourne pitch.
“We’re obviously really disappointed that it’s gone two days,” Page said.
“We’ll learn from this, we’ll get better from it, as we have done over the last seven years. We’ll look at the data, we’ll grow from it and we’ll ensure that we get it right again next year.
“This year we’ve produced a pitch that has favoured the bowlers more than the batters.”
Page gave some insight into why his team had 10 millimetres of grass on the pitch this year as opposed to last year’s seven when we had a competitive Test.
“We had a lot of hot weather leading into last year which makes it a lot easier for us to control our moistures leading in. We left more moisture in the top of the pitch last year to provide that contest early up in the game,” he added.
“We felt that we had the balance really good leading into that game.
“This year we went in with 10 mils as we knew we were going to get a lot of hot weather at the back end of the game.
“We’re really conscious of flat pitches, we don’t want to go back to what we had in 2017 (when it was a road). Our grass is vitally important to what we do. We don’t get inconsistent bounce, we don’t get deterioration in our pitches.
“We’re trying to balance that contest between bat and ball throughout over four or five days to provide that captivating Test for all.
“So for us we left it longer because of the weather we were going to get at the back end.
“We’ll make sure we get it right next year.”
