Ashes 2010: Spicy MCG pitch won’t bother England, says Flower

MELBOURNE - England cricket team coach Andy Flower has said that his squad does not fear playing on a lively pitch during the Boxing day Test to be played here later this week.

“If they (MCG curators) prepare a pitch with bounce and a bit in it for the bowlers that will make it a good contest in Melbourne; that’s what they should be doing, as it makes for a good spectacle,” The Guardian quoted Flower, as saying.

“When we were there for the three-day game they were preparing two pitches. One looked barer than the other and we expected then that they would go with the one with more grass cover,” he added.

“We won’t see similar conditions in Melbourne because it is not as quick and it doesn’t bounce as much there,” Flower said.

He added: “I thought the curator at Perth did a really good job. I thought it was an excellent pitch as I did the Adelaide pitch, which deteriorated nicely. This made for really exciting cricket.”

Australia’s captain, Ricky Ponting, is eager for another surface to suit his aggressive fast bowlers, and negate England’s off-spinner Graeme Swann, after their crushing 267-run win in Perth levelled the Ashes series at 1-1 with two to play.

Flower, on the other hand, is determined to question the notion that England can only defeat Australia on benign surfaces. He repeatedly quotes Old Trafford as a pitch where England have proved they can play pace, and he could also refer to the fact that England beat Pakistan last summer, when the ball swung and seamed throughout, whereas Australia lost to Pakistan at Headingley.(ANI)