Sydney Cricket Ground voted the worst first-class cricket venue in Australia

The Sydney Cricket ground has been hit for six, with a survey of state captains and match referees voting it the worst first-class venue in Australia. The Sheffield Shield is the domestic first-class cricket competition in Australia. Cricket Australia on Wednesday officially released for the first time of each Sheffield Shield venue which was held this year. This move has been taken forward after the ICC’s recent naming and shaming of the international venues which are not up to the level.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground, Brisbane’s Gabba, the Adelaide Oval and Perth’s Waca Ground rated highly for pitch and outfield conditions during the Shield season. The SCG’s were hugely disappointed as only once they received full five votes for the standard of the pitch, and on one occasion it received two votes. The two votes came after the Victoria and Blues match in which Victoria won by 198 runs with the help of Peter Handscomb who scored a double century in that match. While the Blues were bowled out for 192 runs and the New South Wales Blue skipper Steve Smith rated that the pitch condition was poor. But Victoria’s skipper Matthew Wade and match referee Daryl Harper completely disagreed it.

The Cricket Australia operations manager Sean Cary said that they were providing high-standard conditions. “There is, obviously, one venue where the scores were less than a four out of five from a pitch and outfield. We hope they take note of that and put measures in place to fix up any issues they might have,” he said.

But a spokesman for the SCG Trust said it would seek an explanation from CA why an “unfair adjustment” had not been revised.

“CA were advised by the match referee to review the poor rating given to the SCG pitch for the NSW vs Victoria match. The NSW captain’s rating was at odds with that of the Victorian captain and the officiating umpires,” he said.

In four matches at the MCG, overall it got 38 votes with an average of 9.5, while the Adelaide oval got 37 votes in four games (average 9.25) and the WACA had 48 in five games (average 9.6) and Blundstone Arena 47 in five games(average 9.4). The ratings were given by the two team captains and the referee during the post-match presentation along with the curator.

The curators had agreed that when preparing a pitch for the first-class match they would consider four points: a balance between bat and ball, to preserve the unique characteristics of each pitch, promote entertaining cricket and showcase the skills of all players. The Cricket Australia also stated that the “Ultimate” day of cricket would produce 10 wickets and 300 runs.