Outgoing Australia captain Michael Clarke claimed pitches prepared specifically to help England’s bowlers had made the Ashes an unfair contest between bat and ball.
Despite marking his last match before international retirement by leading Australia to victory in the fifth Test at The Oval, Clarke was frustrated that a succession of seamer-friendly pitches had played a decisive role as England won the series 3-2.
While Australia won on the two flattest pitches of the series at Lord’s and The Oval, they were ruthlessly exposed by England’s pace bowlers on lively tracks at Cardiff, Edgbaston and Trent Bridge.
Hinting that those surfaces were ordered by the England hierarchy in a bid to expose Australia to conditions that favoured the hosts, Clarke suggested groundsmen should be given more say in pitch preparation.
“You’re given a role, a responsibility, and a job and you want to be able to do your best at that,” Clarke said. “I’ve got a feeling, from the conversations I’ve had with a lot of the groundsmen in this country, they’re a little bit disappointed they haven’t been able to do as they’ve wanted to do.
“I don’t know what influence the England and Wales Cricket Board had and to be honest I don’t know what influence they (Cricket Australia) have in Australia either.
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“If I go to the groundsman at the Gabba and say ‘I want it to be a turner like the SCG’ he’ll absolutely laugh at me. It might be different around the world.”
After becoming the first Australian to lose four Ashes series in England since the 19th century, Clarke suggested players and fans were getting a raw deal from the current trend of home boards preparing pitches to suit their teams.
“I think Test cricket is a five-day battle. I want to see good and fair cricket for both batters and bowlers. The fans of the game deserve to see a really good contest for five days,” Clarke added.
“I think that’s the way the game should be played. I think the past three Test matches have not been that case.”
Meanwhile, Clarke said he felt fortunate to have played for his country, scoring 8,643 runs in 115 Tests, including 28 hundreds.
“It’s been an amazing journey; whether you play one Test or a hundred,” said Clarke, who retired alongside Chris Rogers. “You never want to say goodbye, but our time is up. I’ve been really lucky to play with fantastic players.
“It’s nice, because, yes it’s the end of my career and I’m very fortunate to have played as much as I have for Australia,” said Clarke.
“But this is not about me – what I want people to see is the fight inside this changeroom and how much they wanted to play really good cricket.”
