Ashes 2017: A Boxing Day disaster at MCG
This is my third attempt at writing about the fourth Ashes Test. I am angry, confused and feel extremely short-changed. I can't imagine what the good people of Melbourne are feeling.
What's the point? Is it worth all the build up and hype? It's hard to imagine that this was the marquee event of the Australian sporting summer, the biggest Test of the cricket season. Cricket Australia have done a brilliant job of promoting the sport in the country. Viewership and participation numbers are excellent, and Test cricket is in pretty good health. But it doesn't matter what you do off the field if the actual product, Cricket Australia's biggest cash cow, is a giant heap of shit. The pitch did nothing for five days. Flat as a pancake and held together by bowlers'tears. It's slow, low and doesn't disintegrate. It reduced a fierce rivalry to a farce. The English bowling was unsexy. Most of the time, they bowled in the high 120s and Moeen Ali didn't spin the ball. By some miracle, it sort of worked. The famed Australian bowling was even worse. Jackson Bird was poor, Pat Cummins was ill and Josh Hazlewood was ineffective on a pitch that offered little.
What's the point? Is it worth all the build up and hype? It's hard to imagine that this was the marquee event of the Australian sporting summer, the biggest Test of the cricket season. Cricket Australia have done a brilliant job of promoting the sport in the country. Viewership and participation numbers are excellent, and Test cricket is in pretty good health. But it doesn't matter what you do off the field if the actual product, Cricket Australia's biggest cash cow, is a giant heap of shit. The pitch did nothing for five days. Flat as a pancake and held together by bowlers'tears. It's slow, low and doesn't disintegrate. It reduced a fierce rivalry to a farce. The English bowling was unsexy. Most of the time, they bowled in the high 120s and Moeen Ali didn't spin the ball. By some miracle, it sort of worked. The famed Australian bowling was even worse. Jackson Bird was poor, Pat Cummins was ill and Josh Hazlewood was ineffective on a pitch that offered little.
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