It could be a fast bouncy pitch, says curator

Kevin Mitchell, the groundsman from the Gabba, reckons that the pitch at the Bundeberg Rum Stadium in Cairns could turn out to be a bouncy one. Mitchell has been supervising the preparation of the pitch at Cairns, the venue for the second Test between Australia and Sri Lanka which begins tomorrow.

"Generally with a good grass cover it will be nice with even bounce," he said. "The high clay content should make it a fairly fast, bouncy wicket. It is still winter here and the bounce will be evenly fair throughout the game. The moisture will be there on the pitch for the first couple of days."

However, Mitchell felt that the pitch would last the distance and didn't think it would pose too many problems. "I think the pitch is going to play fine," he said. "I don't think there will be any problem with it. There is no reason why the Test shouldn't go its full distance of five days. It's a fairly typical Test wicket."

The first Test, at Darwin, lasted just three days and the pitch got flak from all quarters. Adam Gilchrist, the stand-in captain, had even termed it as below Test standard. But Mitchell, with 20 years of experience behind him, doesn't foresee any such problems at Cairns and was keeping a close watch as Rod Cape, the local groundsman, worked on the pitch.

"If it is a day like this today and on Friday - hot and sunny - you would expect the team winning the toss to bat first. The outfield should be pretty fast and should give value for shots. The boundaries aren't long. The longest one is about 75 metres square of the wicket. It is 70 metres everywhere else."

Though, the stadium is mainly used for Australian Rules Football, it has five permanent cricket pitches. Mitchell was called up to prepare the pitch last year when Bangladesh played the first Test match on this ground. "We had pretty ordinary weather leading up to the Test match [last year]. This year is a little bit better. We got a couple of early fine days. We expect it to be a better batting wicket than last year.

"The Bangladesh Test lasted three-and-a-half days. It wasn't an easy wicket to bat on but they batted very well on the first day and got close to 300."