Concern over SCG after match abandonment but confidence Windies test in

With the Boxing Day test on, curators would have insufficient time to prepare a second Test wicket were it deemed necessary to shift the Test from Sydney.

The concern for player safety, especially with so many Australian payers in the game, vindicated the referee decision to scrap the match and for Cricket Australia to award the points to Victoria, Dodemaide said.

The farcical abandonment of the Sheffield Shield match between NSW and Victoria has cost the home side six points and done rather more damage to the reputation of the SCG, its custodians at the Trust and its NSW Blues tenants.

“The informal advice is that it looks like they are planning to do that as soon as possible”, Jones said.

Cary added there was no guarantee that the ground would be ready to host the Shield match against the Bulls and also KFC Big Bash League matches on December 20 and 27, but was confident the Test against the Windies would go ahead as planned.

“Abandoning a match is the last resort for any match official and was only done after due consideration for player safety. We have every confidence they will get the playing surface right for that match”, Cary said. “We will need to make a few checks before then and we’re very hopeful that they’ll get it right”.

Tour matches played by South Africa in 2012 and England the following year showed a ground a long way short of its best at the outset of the cricket season, and it has become customary for those working at the venue to talk about the goal of “getting it right for the Test” even though the cricket season is half over by the time it comes around – Cricket NSW and the Trust have squabbled in recent summers over the use of pitches well removed from the centre of the square for BBL matches, and practice facilities have also been a source of debate.

Jones said the Blues had been surprised by the substandard conditions, adding Cricket NSW would speak directly with the Trust to ensure the playing surface returns to its normal standard.

“They’ve been here for more than 100 years, as have we, and we’ll both be here for another 100 years so we’ll work through that”.

“It’s hard to judge from afar, but certainly it seems that they’re having a few issues up there”, he said.

“With our next match due to start on Saturday we felt we could not take the risk of forfeiting a further six points due to the possibility of a recurrence”, Jones said. Bearing in mind we’re hirers of the ground as we are at Blacktown, so to a few extent we have influence but not control. “It’s not a good look for cricket and it’s not a good look for anybody involved in it. We had no reason to think there’d be any issues, so it did come as a bit of a surprise to all of us”.

“We will certainly take that [the six points for the match] but no one was pleased with the outcome because of course what we wanted was a game to be played on its merits and all of the players to be able to have the chance to put performances on he board and stake their claims for national honours”. I’ve spoken to my counterpart up there, Andrew Jones, a couple of times… and he’s very frustrated as well.

“That hasn’t been the case so I’m sure he’s frustrated”. “It’s not acceptable because we’ve had to abandon the match”, Cary said.

“There were a lot of Australian players out there”.

The most serious, when Aaron Finch dug into the turf, jarring his knee, prompted the umpires to call off the day’s play. “I think if it had have been anyone else, there would have been a chance to get on”.