Key revelation from MCG curator about pitch for India-Pakistan clash | IND vs PAK T20 World Cup 2022
The iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) will be jam packed on Sunday (October 23) to witness the epic rivalry between arch-rivals India and Pakistan. The forecast for the game wasn’t great until Saturday (October 22) but things seemed to have improved significantly for the game to take place now.
Everyone’s focus has now turned towards the 22 years and the interest around the behaviour of the pitch has increased. Meanwhile, the MCG pitch curator Michael Salvatore has dropped a hint on the same stating that the surface will remain consistent for entire 40 overs of action. He also went on to add that the pitch was installed three weeks before the game.
“T20 wickets are usually really consistent for the whole match. So it should make for a really good game. We have brought it from our wicket nursery which is just outside the ground. It's literally 200 meters outside the ground so we can move and monitor and maintain the wickets all year around. And the wickets were installed three weeks ago,” he said while speaking to A Sports.
Once cricket finishes, we have this as a football stadium, says MCG pitch curator
For the unversed, the wickets used at the MCG and several other stadiums are drop-in pitches with the grounds being used for other sports too, especially Football. Once the cricket season is done and dusted, the drop-in pitches are removed and are taken care of in order to maintain for the upcoming matches.
“So we have drop-in wickets here at the MCG. So for the cricket season we bring the wickets in and I sit on some sand and bed in nicely. And then once cricket finishes, we have got the football stadium. We have the ability to take them out and put them up in our special week anniversary where we can look after and maintain them,” Salvatore added.
With rain likely to play spoilsport, it remains to be seen if toss plays an important role on Sunday evening for the marquee game between India and Pakistan.