Great disappointment to New South Wales after SCG damage, says Lee Germon
In a rather bizarre sequence of events, New South Wales have been forced to shift their Sheffield Shield match against Tasmania. While Cricket NSW chief executive opines that the youngsters should play as much cricket as possible at SCG, they failed to prepare the pitch in time for the Shield match.
New South Wales had to forcibly shift their Sheffield Shield clash with Tasmania which was set to take place on the 14th of October. The pitch at the Sydney Cricket Ground is the reason why NSW had to take such a decision as now they face a steep challenge to prepare the pitch for the Australia Domestic One Day Cup clash against the visitors.
The training session of Sydney Roosters ahead of the NRL grand finale has been cited as the reason by the NSW for the damage caused to the pitch. Lee Germon, Cricket NSW chief executive, said that the players were very excited to perform in front of the home crowd.
"It is a great disappointment to our players and everyone at Cricket NSW that we can no longer play there over the next week," Germon told Cricbuzz.
"Our male players were looking forward to playing four of their five home Shield matches and a one-day match at the SCG this season, something that has rarely happened over the past decade or so. Our off-season training and planning was based squarely around the fact that most of our matches would be at the SCG this season, creating an extra buzz of excitement.
"It is important that our current and future international cricketers have the opportunity to play as much cricket as possible on the SCG."
But to the contrary, SCG Trust has told cricket.com.au that the training sessions are not the reason behind the damaged pitch. Instead, they stressed that the pitch wasn't ready in time for the Shield clash. The SCG will also be hosting a T20I between Australia and Pakistan along with four more domestic matches this year.