MCC says it will ‘act quickly’ to improve Lord’s pitch after England win shortened Test

The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) has admitted it must “act quickly” to improve pitches at Lord’s after it was heavily criticised for the surface produced for England’s first Test victory over New Zealand.

England completed an emphatic 115-run victory shortly before lunch on day four, with rain having interrupted all three previous days.

It was a convincing performance from Stokes’ team in their first outing since the winter’s humiliating Ashes defeat to Australia but the surface was the main talking point.

Forty wickets fell in just 166 overs, with variable bounce and extravagant seam movement combining to produce torrid conditions for batting.

Just two players recorded fifties — England’s Harry Brook and Emilio Gay — and four different bowlers took five wickets or more in an innings, the first time that has happened in a Lord’s Test.

England captain Ben Stokes says pitches like the one produced this week are damaging to Test cricket.

“It was an inconsistent pitch and it was tough because as a batter you never feel in and don’t know what’s going to happen off the wicket,” he told reporters. “When you talk about the future of Test cricket it’s not just a case these days of batters losing the ability to dig in. It can be wickets like that.

“It was no-one’s fault. Nobody meant to do it but you want a Test to be played over as much time as possible and without rain that wasn’t going to happen this week.

“I get asked the question all the time about the longevity of this format and saving Test cricket and those conditions weren’t ideal for the game.

“If you came on day one you’ve had a great time but the game’s played over five days and without the weather it wouldn’t have gone to the fourth day so for someone who thinks Test cricket is the best format and should never disappear that’s not ideal.

“From a playing point of view it was great to be challenged. But when you see extreme conditions like that they’re not going to help the game in future.”

Stokes’ concerns were echoed by his New Zealand counterpart Tom Latham.

“I’m sure the curator (groundsman) didn’t think the wicket was going to play like that going into the Test and we certainly didn’t,” he said. “There’s only been two full days of cricket played. Both teams had the same conditions throughout but it wasn’t ideal. It’s a great week here at Lord’s and for it to play out like that is unfortunate.”

The MCC, which runs Lord’s, had not commented publicly on criticism of the pitch during the game but admitted in a statement issued after play on Sunday that improvements were needed.

MCC chief executive and secretary Rob Lawson said: “We recognise that the pitch for this Test has shown more variable bounce than we would have wanted. We hold ourselves to the highest standards and are naturally frustrated when a surface falls short of those expectations.

“MCC invests significantly each year in the preparation of the Main Square at Lord’s, as well as in research, technology and expertise aimed at producing pitches that provide a fair and consistent contest between bat and ball. The unusually hot and dry weather during May, followed by wetter conditions in the lead-up to the match, presented a number of challenges in preparing the pitch. However, we fully recognise the need to act quickly.”

Options open to the MCC include developing ‘drop-in’ pitches, grown and nurtured elsewhere on the Lord’s site before being moved in trays to the middle, or digging up a pitch entirely. If the MCC did that to one of the five ‘international’ pitches used at Lord’s, it would be out of commission for three years and cost MCC a major international match per year. That would cost the club an estimated £10million ($13.3m).

This is not the first time a Lord’s pitch has been criticised in recent years. Concerns were also raised over the slow, low surface produced for last year’s World Test Championship final between Australia and South Africa.

Former England captain Michael Atherton called the wicket this week “substandard” during his commentary for TV broadcaster Sky Sports, while another ex-England skipper, Michael Vaughan, told the BBC: “It’s not a test for the bowlers, because it has been too easy. This isn’t a fair balance between bat and ball. I feel very fortunate that I didn’t have to bat on many pitches like this.”

This Test — the 150th to be played at Lord’s — is the first of three scheduled at the ground this year. England Women play India there in July, while Pakistan take on England in a men’s match in August.