Courageous Test great Justin Langer has spoken out against the North Sydney Oval pitch farce, expressing his disappointment that modern day cricket has gone flat.
Langer built a reputation on being one of the toughest batsmen to play the game, and as one of the leading coaches in the country he disagrees with the game’s apparent watering down of anything resembling trying conditions for run-makers.
WA played on a different North Sydney wicket on Tuesday without incident, pummelling the Cricket Australia XI to march straight into Saturday’s one-day cup final, where they will play either Victoria or South Australia.
WARNER: Let the sledging begin!
Langer admits he can’t speak to whether or not the pitch that resulted in a NSW v Victoria match being controversially abandoned on Sunday was “dangerous”, but he’s sceptical of it being just another instance of the warrior elements of batting and the skill of bowlers being wiped out.
“It seemed really strange. They played, what, 69 overs and then called it? I’ve said this for a very long time — all cricket can’t be played on really flat wickets,” said Langer, renowned for a series of Test knocks where he copped physical punishment from bowlers, only to keep putting his gloves up.
“If you look at most of the results just in this tournament, most of them have been 250 to 300- run games.
“There’s got to be something there for the bowlers. I actually think it makes for entertaining cricket where it’s an even contest. I can’t comment on whether it was dangerous or not but it did seem strange that it got to the 69-over mark.”
Umpires made the call to abandon the NSW contest after a series of short balls late in the piece jumped off a particularly nasty patch on the pitch that both Blues and Victorian bowlers had been targeting all day.
Langer doesn’t see that as dangerous practice by bowlers, but rather smart tactics that should be rewarded by a game that now seems to have every advantage stacked in favour of the batter.
“I’ve heard theories that bowlers were targeting one specific area but that’s bloody good cricket,” Langer said.
“Bowlers bowling into rough — it’s like (spin) bowlers bowling into rough on the subcontinent.
“Some of Shane Warne’s greatest moments came when he was bowling at those areas. If bowlers are good enough to do that then to me, that’s really clever cricket. I wasn’t here. I didn’t see it. I heard about it obviously — it was disappointing.”
Langer’s frustration mirrors many in the game who are upset the characteristics of iconic pitches like the SCG, the WACA and Adelaide Oval have been lost over the years, with wickets becoming almost uniform across the country.
In the opinion of many former greats, Australia’s disastrous record overseas has been contributed to by batsmen not being exposed to tough conditions at home soil that can prepare them mentally and physically for variables like subcontinental spin or UK swing
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