‘They don’t listen to players’: Starc’s pointed jab at Cricket Australia over Ashes fixture

3 months ago 4

Perth: Mitchell Starc has taken a pointed jab at Cricket Australia, saying the national team has lost an advantage by starting the Ashes in Perth instead of their Gabba fortress.

The left-arm pace ace, who famously struck with the first ball of the series four years ago in Brisbane, made the surprise admission on Wednesday just minutes after the man in charge of producing the Perth Stadium pitch warned against expecting a repeat of the fiery day-one wicket that decimated Australia and India 12 months ago.

Mitchell Starc means business ahead of the start of a blockbuster Ashes series.

Australia are expected to name Jake Weatherald and Brendan Doggett to make their Test debuts, with Marnus Labuschagne to return to the line-up in his preferred position at No.3 and Cameron Green to take Beau Webster’s spot at six.

England are set to play a five-prong pace attack featuring speed demons Jofra Archer and Mark Wood after the pair were named in a 12-man squad. Brydon Carse and Gus Atkinson will provide the pace support alongside captain Ben Stokes while off-spinner Shoaib Bashir is expected to carry the drinks.

CA’s deal to launch the next three Test summers in Perth, signed earlier this year, has rankled players, and spared England the mental pain of starting this series at a ground that has caused them decades of trauma.

This week’s Test is the first time since 1982 a home Ashes series has kicked off away from the Gabba, where Australia have lost just once since 1988.

England have not won in Brisbane since 1986 and have kick-started many a disastrous series there, including in 2002 when former captain Nasser Hussain infamously decided to bowl first only to finish the day with Australia on 2-364 and fast bowler Simon Jones rupturing his ACL in a fielding accident.

Starc said he was unsure if Australia would have as big an advantage starting the series out west.

“We’ll find out in a week. [They] don’t listen to players, we would have liked to start in Brisbane too,” Starc said.

Atkinson, who has not played a Test in Australia, said the visitors had been done a favour by the schedule. This will be England’s first match at Perth Stadium, which was bypassed in the last series four years ago due Western Australia’s onerous biosecurity measures to deal with COVID-19.

“History would say it’s probably a good thing we’re not starting at the Gabba,” Atkinson said.

England are likely to be spared the fire and brimstone initiation in Perth that befell Australia and India 12 months ago when 17 wickets fell on a wild day one.

Perth Stadium curator Isaac McDonald began pitch preparation a day earlier to ensure this track will not have the same juice. He will aim to have the grass in between eight and 10 millimetres in length in accordance with previous seasons.

The deck was still sporting a healthy tinge of green on Wednesday, but there is expectation in the Australian camp of a more sporting surface to start this summer’s marquee series.

“There’s been a bit made of the colour of it, and it’s going to be a green mamba – I think it’s ready to go now,” Starc said.

McDonald said cracks will open later in the game, despite temperatures not expected to climb beyond the high 20s to bake the track.

“Every year we say the cracking will be there, that’s not going to change,” McDonald said. “What I’ve really knuckled down this preparation is ensuring that pace and bounce is spot on for day one to ensure that even battle.”

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