More natural environment to make MCG pitches better, hopes Matt Page

Just ahead of the third T20I between Australia and Sri Lanka which is to be played at the MCG on Friday, November 1, Page has revealed that he is confident that the five-year project is coming together. They had taken up the plan to revitalise the MCG's ageing drop-in surfaces due to which, the curator believes that this time the pitches will be better than the ones from the previous two seasons.

"We've been working towards a plan over the past year, part of a five-year plan of rejuvenating our pitches and get them up to the standard of where we want them to be. One of the massive projects that we undertook at the end of the AFL season last year was that we removed the concrete slab out in the middle, which has given us a more natural environment for the pitches to thrive in this summer and we're looking forward to seeing how that goes,” Page was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

While the MCG had a concrete slab as the base for the drop-in pitches, the Adelaide Oval and the Perth Stadium did not install such a slab. Since the concrete was making the environment less natural, the pitches turned out to be less competitive. In order to rectify that, a more natural environment is being set up.

"It is a more natural environment for the pitches to grow in and we're hoping it's going to give us a better result and enable us to roll out better pitches. So far, the pitches have gone in well,” he added.