Inside the 21-minute grilling of the MCG curator and his boss
When MCG curator Matt Page and MCC chief executive Stuart Fox emerged from gate two of the empty coliseum on Sunday, their slow walk towards dozens of journalists said it all.
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It’s never a good sign when the curator of a cricket pitch fronts a press conference, beamed live on national television, at 9.01am on what should have been day three of the Boxing Day Test.
When MCG curator Matt Page and MCC chief executive Stuart Fox emerged from gate two of the empty, 100,000-seat coliseum on Sunday morning in Melbourne, their slow walk towards dozens of journalists, cameras and photographers said it all.
With expressions more befitting a funeral, Page and Fox took deep breaths and prepared to own the situation.
It felt more like a scene from Australian politics than cricket, reminiscent of Anthony Albanese striding into the prime minister’s courtyard in Canberra to tackle a major issue with members of the fourth estate wanting answers.
Instead, this press conference, announced by Cricket Australia 68 minutes after the final delivery of England’s victory in the fourth Ashes Test, was convened to discuss a grassy pitch under fire.
A two-day Test, the first at the MCG in 94 years, is a big deal.
Melbourne Cricket Club chief executive Stuart Fox and head curator Matthew Page front the media at the MCG on what should have been day three of the Test.Credit: Wayne Taylor
“Thanks for coming down,” Fox began, with Page to his left, wearing an MCC polo shirt tucked into long trousers – a far cry from the navy blue shorts he would have expected to be wearing while bringing out the heavy roller to the middle of the ground.
“I didn’t think we’d be standing out here doing a press conference this morning. I thought we’d be getting ready for day three. We thought we’d jump on the front foot and address the media and the public.
“We’re obviously disappointed the Test has finished within two days. We didn’t plan for it. We didn’t want this to happen. It’s obviously challenging times for us.”
What followed was a 21-minute grilling about, effectively, the length of grass on a 20-metre cricket pitch. There were 25 mentions of the “disappointment” and the “disappointing” events of a whirlwind 48 hours, and repeated references to a surface that, in hindsight, was a few millimetres too furry.
