Former Australian coach Darren Lehmann has once again called for the coin toss to be scrapped in Test cricket as the fallout to the second two-day match of the Ashes series continues.
Cricket Australia is bracing for a heavy financial loss after England won the Boxing Day Test inside two days, only a month after the Ashes opener in Perth also ended with three days to spare.
It is the first time the same series has had multiple two-day Tests in 129 years.
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Millions of dollars in refunds will be handed to patrons who had purchased tickets for Day 3, which had been sold out and could have attracted a third successive crowd of more than 90,000.
As debate rages about the state of the MCG pitch, Lehmann spruiked removing the coin toss and giving the visiting team the choice of whether to bat or bowl.
“Get rid of the toss, away team chooses. Simple as that,” he tweeted on Monday.
It’s a long held theory of his, dating back to 2015 when he was coach of Australia.
He believes if the visiting team had the first choice then host nations would do their best to prepare wickets as even as possible.
“That is one that should definitely come in to cricket, where the opposition gets the right to choose what they want to do,” Lehmann said after Australia’s series win over New Zealand in December, 2015.
“I reckon it will stop all the wickets suiting the home team.”
Lehmann went into further detail the following year in his autobiography, titled Coach.
“The biggest challenge to the longest format, for me at least, comes not from Twenty20 but from the surfaces on which matches are being played,” Lehmann said.
“Put simply, those surfaces are either far too bland or, conversely, are far too heavily weighted in favour of the home side. In both instances, that does Test cricket no good at all.
“On the other hand, no one wants to see 600 plays 500 on pitches that offer the bowlers nothing. Producing tracks like that is the surest way to kill off the format.
“My solution to ensure the best possible pitches are produced is, at international level, to do away with the toss, with the visiting side given the option of whether they want to bat or bowl.
“That way the result is not decided by the toss of the coin, host boards have a greater incentive to produce decent pitches that are fair to both sides and the chances are that after five days the better side – rather than the one that has called correctly and thus been able to take advantage of favourable conditions – is the one what will come out on top.”
MCG staff admit they erred in preparing a pitch that favoured the bowlers too heavily in the rapid-fire Boxing Day Test.
MCC curator Matt Page left 10 mm of grass on the pitch, up from 7 mm last year when Australia famously beat India late on Day 5.
“We’re trying to balance that contest between bat and ball throughout, over the four or five days, to provide that captivating Test for all,” Page said in front of a heaving press conference at the MCG on Sunday.
“We left it longer because we knew we were going to get (hot) weather at the back end that we knew we needed our grass (for).
“You look back at it and you go, ‘well, it’s favoured the bowlers too much days one and two’.
“If that doesn’t happen, then we set ourselves up really good for day three and four.”
This pitch was treacherous to bat on for both sides, prompting criticism even from fast-bowling greats such as Stuart Broad, Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee that it was unfair for batters.
England captain Ben Stokes, even after securing his country’s first Test win in Australia for 15 years, slammed the state of the pitch.
Page admitted he was in a “state of shock” when the wickets fell so quickly on Boxing Day.
“I’ve never been involved in a Test match like it and hopefully never involved in a Test match like that again,” he said.
“It was a roller coaster ride for two days to see everything unfold.
Australia Cricketers’ Association boss Paul Marsh believed curators needed to adapt to the aggressive batting of the modern game rather than expect players to change their approach.
“I think we need to see pitches more like what we saw in Adelaide, as opposed to what we saw here and in Perth,” Marsh told SEN.
– With AAP
