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An American band called Houndmouth appeared recently on David
Letterman's Late Show. Other than their good time, mid-western tunes,
the most amusing element of the performance was the tag "RENTALS"
emblazoned across the group's bass drum. It was a joke, of course, but
taking a glance down the fixtures for the next World Cup, it was hard to
avoid applying a similar tag a little more seriously to many of the
venues employed by the Australia and New Zealand organisers for 2015.
One of the first trends to pop out when observing the schedule for the
tournament is that no fewer than five of its seven knockout matches will
take place on drop-in wickets at football grounds - two at the MCG, one
each in Wellington and Auckland, and one at Adelaide Oval, a ground
that has just lost its famed strip of turf to the demands of AFL
expedience.
Only the SCG has managed to maintain its place as both a cricket ground
and a favoured venue, courtesy of a partial facelift in the nick of
time. Even then, the ground that was recently lauded globally for the
graceful way with which it celebrated its 100th Test match had to beat
off the entreaties of Sydney's drop-in Olympic Stadium, which has
struggled to be loved by players even in a format as transient as
Twenty20.
By contrast, the Gabba appears to have lost out because its
redevelopment arrived too early, being completed more than a decade ago.
Little consideration seems to have been given to the fact that Brisbane
and Perth provide two of the more unique surfaces to play cricket in
the world. Certainly the incentive to retain a pitch of genuine
character has fallen well behind that to ensure a venue is bigger,
brighter and more entertainment complex than cricket ground.
Cricket's need to "fit in" among the other sports played around it in
Australia and New Zealand has never been more succinctly stated. The
game has become a minor tenant in many sporting venues across the two
countries, and it is worth measuring the cost of this shift. Australia's
struggling Ashes batsmen have complained about the loss of pitch
characteristics around the country, and drop-in wickets do little to
help.
The prefabricated surfaces prepared for 2015 are likely to be of the
inoffensive kind that administrators can rely on for high scores and
late finishes, but will not provide any sort of addition to the
experience in the way the local turf did during the 1992 edition of the
cup. Back then, the bounce and swing on offer in Australia contrasted
neatly with the slower, lower surfaces on the other side of the "ditch"
and provided a rich blend of tactical and technical conundrums.
As Ricky Ponting put it when looking over Adelaide amid its
redevelopment last year: "Most often grounds change for the better, but
sometimes they change for the better of other sports. When you look at
our grounds now, all our grounds around Australia have always been
cricket grounds but they've changed into football grounds more than
anything these days, and cricket's trying to survive on football ovals."
In the case of the World Cup, there has been some level of goodwill
extended towards cricket by the football codes, at least in part because
a gap of 23 years between events is hardly a blip on the financial
modelling of the AFL or Super Rugby. An AFL spokesperson told
Melbourne's Herald Sun that "we are happy to work around their
schedule, as this will be a fantastic event for the city, state and the
country", omitting to add this was only true so long as it didn't happen
too often.
The creation of room for the event in the summers of Australia and New
Zealand has not been without scheduling compromises on cricket's side.
Cricket Australia has mapped out a mere four Test matches against India
that summer and has no plans to add another two against another touring
team, as has become customary. This means at least two capital cities
will miss out on their annual Test, with Brisbane again likely to fall
victim to the schedule, alongside the perennially undersung Hobart.
The irony of this would not have been lost on Tasmanian officials in
attendance at the launch as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a reference
to the high government cost of installing floodlights at Bellerive Oval.
Federal and state government funding has been a major factor in many of
the upgrades that will be seen at venues in 2015. In return for this
outlay, there has been a measure of political jostling to the handing
out of matches. The high profile India v Pakistan pool match on the
second day of the tournament is a fixture often referred to as "more
than a game", but in the chambers of the South Australian government, it
has been described as such for reasons less to do with border stoushes
than marketing opportunities.
In the words of the SA Premier Jay Weatherill: "The government, through
the South Australian Tourism Commission, had a specific strategy in
bidding for a schedule that would guarantee the maximum exposure for
Adelaide and South Australia. What has been announced today exactly
matches that strategy because not only will India be playing their first
match on the opening weekend of the tournament in Adelaide, but they
will be based here for a week prior to that game playing warm-up
matches, including one against Australia. It gives South Australia an
outstanding opportunity to get significant leverage into India."
So even on a day when cricket took a fair share of attention around
Australia, New Zealand and the rest of the world, it was hard to escape
the feeling that in 2015 it will be as much a pawn of footballing,
corporate and government interests as a major player. Whether or not
Houndmouth are still around in two years time remains to be seen. Either
way, their drum kit will be in for more business as a result of the
"RENTALS" label, just as the preferred cricket grounds of the 2015 World
Cup have traded character for cash flow.
Daniel Brettig is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here
Feeds: Daniel Brettig
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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