In memory of the WACA
Writing in the Guardian, Mike Selvey, who has played at the WACA, recalls the romance of the ground and hopes it can still be maintained despite the move
ESPNcricinfo staff
18-Sep-2015
The WACA ground in Perth is part of Cricket legend. Its pace excites fast bowlers, its bounce excites batsmen who can cut and pull and its theatre excites cricket followers worldwide. But some of that is expected to be lost with major international fixtures to be moved to the new stadium at Burswood. Writing in the Guardian Mike Selvey, who has played at the WACA, recalls the romance of the ground and hopes it can still be maintained despite the move.
The tricky part will be in the attempt to replicate the playing conditions that since the first Test there in 1970 have made the WACA ground unique. The new stadium will have drop-in pitches, the technology for the cultivation of which has improved immeasurably since the days of Kerry Packer's World Series cricket. The intention, of course, is to develop pitches using the same soil type and grass rooting, with the aim of obtaining similar pace and bounce, although this raises the question as to why it cannot, therefore, be done elsewhere
Aside from anything else, the replacement, while maintaining some of the characteristics, had a tendency not so much to crack as crevice, which may have looked a great deal worse than it played but was still, and remains, a visual, and hence mental, problem. The influence of the Doctor, which helped the ball swing and gave drift to spin bowlers, is sure to be negated, too, by an enclosure of stands. It would be wishful to think that cricket will be anything like the same again in Perth.