The Gabba's gaurdian Angel

This a letter for the lady, the Honourable Judy Spence MP, who protected the Gabba Wicket from the Brisbane Lions.

Dear Judy Spence,

I am writing this open letter to you to support your decision not to allow the Brisbane Football Club to force you into using drop in pitches at the Gabba.

You have made the right decision, and trust me; it does not come easy to a Victorian to say a Queensland politician has done so.

I should give you my allegiances up front. I am a Cricket writer, and I am a football fan. I can see both sides of the argument, and would like to think I am biased greatly by both sides.

I know what football fans will say, protect our stars. We don’t want our players getting injured. We don’t, but the grounds have had pitches in them for 150 years, and players seemed to survive ok before hand.

Cricket fans will say drop in wickets are no good. That is not always the case, occasionally the MCG and SCG drop in pitches are ok, but it comes in waves, and when they are bad, they are really bad. Like Battlefield Earth.

Personally I believe the pitch must stay, and these are my reasons:

1. It is not the best cricket pitch in Australia; it is the best cricket pitch in the world. No other pitch offers batsmen, quicks and spinners such opportunities, whilst giving spectators a great contest. The MCG and SCG pitches were never that good to begin with, so ditching them for drop in pitches was never a huge concern.

2. I have not checked this, but Football may be the top money earner at the Gabba. I respect that it makes a good deal of money for them, but let’s not forget that this ground has a cricket history that far outstrips the Lions/Bears recent history there. Football is a huge industry in Australia, and one day they will probably have the power to steam roll grounds into doing what they want, but not yet. Cricket comes before Aussie rules in most Queenslanders hearts.

3. Football may be the main sport at the Gabba, but the reason people in Potchesfroom, Jaipur and Nottinghamshire know the name of the ground is because of cricket. The Gabba is a free advertisement internationally, why sully that with bad press about the state of the wicket.

4. Footballers once wanted pitches taken away because they turned into a mud heap during the winter. Now it’s too hard. In Darwin kids play on fields of dust, in Tassie kids play on fields of mud. In the AFL everyone plays on perfectly manicured lawns, and they still complain.

5. The technology and science of drop in wickets is just not up to scratch yet. I am sure one day, you will be able to pre order the exact kind of Drop in pitch you require for each opponent. “I’ll have the flat pitch till day three when it turns into a raging turner please”. Alas, at the moment, they are all just “please gouge my eye out with a spoon this cricket is so boring” pitches. If they ever did get it just right and could work out the pitches perfectly, which pitch do you think they would clone?

6. If the AFL or the LIONS were that concerned with state of the ground, they would be within their rights to ask for an OH & S appraisal of the ground under work safe conditions. This has not been done. So either that matter is not that important, or the Lions believe they can bully their way to this result.

7. I live in Melbourne, I go to the MCG 30 odd times a year. About 10 of those are for the cricket. I have seen the drop in wickets first hand over the years, and they are rubbish, RUBBISH. They are hard to bat on, they are hard to get wickets on, and most importantly they produce dreadful spectacles for fans. Who would want this in their city?

8. Cricket is played at the Gabba more than football. Australia and Queensland play over 40 days a year at the Gabba, the Lions only play 15-20. This is not the case at the MCG. So on balance cricket should hold sway.

Judy, being that you’re a Politician, you probably don’t hear this very often, but I believe you got this right. The football community will complain, Gerard Healy, a former Brownlow medallist and well known hater of Cricket pitches (he was assaulted by one as child) is probably at his Keyboard dissing you as I type, but they always complain about something, why not you for a week.

I will say, given Labour’s history, and the fickle nature of public office, your comment of “There will never be a drop-in wicket at the Gabba so long as I am Sports Minister” is hardly a life long guarantee now is it.

When I think about your decision, it does occur to me that maybe you didn’t do this for the love of Cricket and the Gabba pitch, perhaps you did it to stop this Interloping Victorian game grab a further strangle hold on Queenslanders.

Either way, good work.

Yours Sincerely,

Jrod

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