Bowling great Jeff Thomson calls for greentop on Boxing Day
By IANSWednesday, December 22, 2010
SYDNEY - Former Australian fast bowler Jeff Thomson feels curator Cameron Hodgkins should prepare a greentop in Melbourne for the fourth Ashes Test starting Sunday.
Thomson said Wednesday that a bouncy track is better suited to the Australian team as it was the heroics of the speedsters which enabled them to level the series in Perth.
“Yes he (curator) should, if we want to win,” Thomson was quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph.
England batsman Alastair Cook said it is normal if the home side asks for favourable pitch and Australia would be mad not to do the same.
“I think that is the beauty of home conditions, isn’t it,” Cook said.
“You can prepare a pitch to hopefully suit the home side.
“If you went to India, if they played three spinners and produced a green seamer, you would be wondering what is going on. That is what home advantage is. You would expect everyone to do it.
“The pitch is out of our control and that is the beauty of cricket that conditions change from week to week and it is how you adapt to those that determines how successful you are.
“The challenge is making sure we are ready and adapting to those conditions,” he opined.
