Flat pitches a 'huge problem' for Test cricket: Langer

In the immediate aftermath of last weekend's prematurely curtailed Sheffield Shield match at the MCG, one highly credentialled current fast bowler pondered aloud as to whether there might be something of a double standard at play when it came to assessing 'dangerous pitch conditions'.

With an eyebrow cocked and in tone as flint-dry as the desert heat forecast to bake the first Domain Test between Australia and New Zealand this week, the quick wondered rhetorically why matches are called off when the ball leaps and spits, but proceed unhindered on flat, lifeless surfaces.

The underlying premise of the not-so-serious question being why the threat of impact fractures to batters is deemed an unacceptable risk on under-prepared wickets, while the likelihood of stress fractures to overworked bowlers on the benign ones is rarely raised.

Of course, there is no equivalence between batters unable defend themselves against balls that behave erratically due to divots and cracks, and bowlers being forced to bend their backs on a track bereft of blemishes.

But as debate rages about the virtues and shortfalls of the pitch at Test cricket's oldest venue, Australia coach Justin Langer has warned that one of the biggest problems faced by the long-form game are the benign tracks at which the fast bowling fraternity subversively sneer.

"I see flat pitches as a huge problem for the health of cricket," Langer said in Perth today, as his team stepped up preparations for the city's first day-night Test starting Thursday.

"I’ve said this for 10, 15 or 20 years, for the health of Test cricket, first-class cricket and even one-day cricket, you want to play on wickets where there’s a contest between bat and ball. 

"It’s been very well documented what happened at the MCG this week, but I know they are trying to push it so they get a contest back because we don’t want to see cricket anywhere in the world, in my opinion, on flat wickets which are batsman-dominated.

"It's just not spectacle. 

"Hopefully every country and everyone around the world – whether it’s spin, seam, swing, pace and bounce, whatever it is – give the bowler some hope because we want a spectacle in all cricket.

"It's entertainment, and we don’t want to see cricket played on really flat wickets.

"But also we don't want to go the other way, where there's no chance for a batsman.

"We don't want to see wickets that are so green that the game's over in two days, that doesn't make sense either.

"We want to see a nice balance.

"When there's wickets falling and the best batsmen score runs, that's great Test cricket or great one-day cricket for me."

Langer dismissed suggestions that the problem posed by flat wickets is more acute in Australia, despite the consternation that has arisen over the preponderance of drop-in wickets at all Test venues apart from the Sydney Cricket Ground and Brisbane's Gabba.

His view is supported by data that shows Test venues in Australia have recorded a low rate of drawn matches over the past decade, with just nine stalemates from 55 Tests (16.36 per cent) played here since December 2009.

The only regular Test-hosting nations with a greater rate of results is South Africa (14.28 per cent of Tests drawn) and England (14.92 per cent), while the country with the highest incidence of drawn matches over that time is New Zealand (34.14 per cent).

NZ coach Gary Stead today conceded that his team faced a tough assignment to adjust to the expected pace and bounce of the pitch at Perth Stadium having endured two Tests on sluggish tracks against England at home last month.

"We've come from a couple of pitches against England where it was lower and not quite as quick, so that's going to be our main challenge in the next couple of days in the nets, getting used to that extra pace and bounce," Stead said today.

"I think one of the good things that happened in the first Test (against England) at Mount Manganui is we saw plating in the wicket and we saw it get quite up and down.

"Whilst it might not have had the same bounce (as Perth), what it did have was the variability of bounce that we have to get used to as well."

While the highest number of the nine drawn Tests in Australia over the past decade have been hosted by the SCG (three) – followed by the MCG and Gabba (two each), Perth's WACA Ground and Adelaide Oval (one apiece) – two of those Sydney stalemates have been rain-affected matches.

Following the completion of the Marsh Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Queensland today, rival skippers Peter Nevill and Usman Khawaja spoke glowingly of the historically spin-friendly surface.

O'Keefe claimed 3-28 from almost 18 overs in the Blues' nine-wicket win, prompting claims that the unique character of the SCG is returning after a recent Shield match when even Australia's top Test batter, Steve Smith, admitted he found it difficult to score runs given the lack of life in the surface.

"It was pretty pleasing to see the wicket turning a bit here," Nevill said after his team's victory.

"On day one, there was enough moisture and a tinge of green that you would have thought it would develop into a bit of a road.

"So it’s pleasing to see we’ve got some unique characteristics to the SCG to an extent again.

"It’s good to see quality spin, and people having to play quality spin. 

"We get criticised enough when we go overseas to the sub-continent (saying) we can’t play spin.

"Unless we’re preparing conditions in Australia that allow you to play two spinners, and this is the only venue around the country you can, people aren’t going to be exposed to that and they’re not going to get any better at playing it.

"I’d love to see the SCG continue to be a spinning wicket and I think the curator needs to be allowed to do so."

Nevill's view was endorsed by Khawaja, a former NSW player who made his Test debut at the SCG against England in 2011.

"I think that'd be a pretty good deck to roll out for the Test here," Khawaja said today.

"You want it to probably break up a little bit more, but I think that's more to do with the weather than the wicket. 

"If the sun came out and it wasn't smoggy for four days, I think that would have broken up a lot more and it would have been a really good Test wicket on day four and day five.

"It's feeling more like the SCG of old, (what it was) when I started playing, which is nice."

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