London: Australia has a land mass of three million square miles (7.7 square kilometres), but the most important strip of turf over Christmas will be 22 yards long at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Already the pitch for the Boxing Day Test has been the subject of suggestions of dirty tricks and connivance between Cricket Australia and the MCG groundstaff.
It was seen as a coincidence too far when news seeped through to Perth of the decision to change to a different pitch at the MCG just as England had been blown away on the Waca's bouncy surface.
The assumption was the new strip was being shipped from Perth to Melbourne and dropped in at the last minute to ambush unsuspecting Englishmen. It would be bound to suit a home team newly settled on an all-pace attack.
There were plenty of Australians happy to suggest it would serve England right after producing a dusty turner at the Oval in 2009 where Graeme Swann bowled his side to a series winning victory.
Allegations
But on Thursday the cur-ator at the MCG refuted the allegations of producing a pitch to suit the home side and said the surface would be slow. Good news for England. Bad news for the Australian quicks.
"The MCG has never been accused of being fast and bouncy," said Cameron Hodgkins, the MCG groundsman.
"It is more a wicket that offers something up front but is then flat towards the end of the match. I would think even on the Waca's worst day it would be faster and bouncier than anything we normally turn out", he said. "We are slow on the first day when it causes most difficulty for batsmen who want to get on with it. Patience is a key ingredient here and if you don't have that you can be four or five down early on and the game over."
The pitches at the MCG are a drop-in variety laid in October at the end of the Australian rules football season.
They are grown in an area at the back of the Great Southern Stand before being laid in place and used almost immediately in state cricket by Victoria.
No directives
When England played Victoria at the MCG earlier this month the groundstaff were already working on two strips for the Test.
Hodgkins was not happy with the first one he produced and switched to the second two weeks ago. When asked if any directive had been issued by Cricket Australia he said: "No, not at all. The last time I spoke to someone from Cricket Australia was in the middle of winter. "It was entirely a personal thing and something I did two weeks ago and not on the spur of anything that happened over the last week or so. Being fairly cautious, I normally have a couple of options.
Two weeks ago, just prior to our tour match, it became pretty evident my first option was not going to be ideal for what I envisaged as a Test pitch so I was able to go for what I thought would be a better Test surface."
Hodgkins said the wet summer had stunted any reverse swing, which relies on bare, dry surfaces to abrade the ball, and that the pitch is at its bounciest on day two.
