Ponting says Lord’s pitch unfair to bowlers

It has been suggested that groundsmen have been told to prepare deliberately flat pitches in order to neuter Ashes-holders Australia’s pace attack.

The first Test in Cardiff, which England won by 169 runs last week to go 1-0 up in the five-match Ashes series was played on a slow and low surface -- although such pitches have long been associated with matches in the Welsh capital.

However, former Australia captain Ponting said Thursday’s pitch at Lord’s was in marked contrast to the ‘good cricket wicket’ for the first Test between England and New Zealand at Lord’s in May, a surface praised for providing an even contest between bat and ball.

“It’s a very, very different pitch than what we saw against New Zealand only about a month ago so that’s a bit of a worry to me,” Ponting told the ESPNcricinfo website.

Lord’s is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and Ponting, a member of MCC’s world cricket committee, which has made proposals to safeguard the future of Test cricket, said he feared groundsmen were being leant on to prepare surfaces favouring the home side.

“It sounds like the administrators or team captains or coaches might be getting to the groundsmen and asking for certain pitch conditions.

“I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think that should ever happen in the game,” Ponting said.

“There’s such a thing as home ground advantage but I think that’s taking it a little bit too far. “What 

we saw on Friday (Thursday) is a very uncharacteristic Lord’s pitch. I think all anyone wants to see is the character of that ground come out and the character of the pitch come out.”

England beat New Zealand by 124 runs at Lord’s in May after the tourists suffered a last day collapse.