In its 17-year history, the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) remains one of the few Australian cricket venues that does not use drop-in pitches. The iconic stadium, which has also hosted the Australian Football League (AFL) side Sydney Swans since 1982, sees AFL matches take over every March. However, due to the tight schedule between cricket and AFL, the transitions have not been seamless.
On Sunday, the SCG surface drew criticism again for its soft patches in the middle, with Geelong Cats coach Chris Scott comparing it to a Mumbai cricket pitch.
Scott was filmed inspecting the surface ahead of his side’s match against the Swans. The Cats’ coach appeared unhappy with the center wicket area, which he described as excessively hard compared to the softer rye grass surrounding it.
“The actual surface looks beautiful. The rye grass is quite soft. I know there’s been a lot of rain up here, but it’s the contrast between the quite soft area outside the center square and then the pretty rock-hard center wicket area that’s just not conducive to AFL football. And so the strange part—with so much rain—is that it’s covered all the time, and you’ve got this baked… you know, it looked like (a) Mumbai (cricket pitch) out there,” Scott told Australian media.
“It looked like Mumbai out there.”
🗣️ Chris Scott on the SCG’s centre wicket pic.twitter.com/iO5jky09qe
— 7AFL (@7AFL) August 17, 2025
The visitors secured a 43-point win over the Swans, but Scott’s remarks about the SCG surface resembling a Mumbai pitch even prompted Australian pacer Mitchell Starc to react. “I wish Mumbai had that much grass coverage…” Starc wrote on Instagram.
Earlier this year, the Domestic One-Day Cup final between New South Wales (NSW) and Western Australia had to be moved from the SCG to Cricket Central due to pitch preparations for the Swans’ AFL season opener on March 7. While other major venues like the MCG, Adelaide Oval, and Perth’s Optus Stadium use drop-in pitches for easier transitions, the SCG has resisted the change.
NSW skipper Moises Henriques had expressed frustration over losing home-ground advantage. “We just don’t have access to the ground (as long as we’d like). It’d be nice to have a home-ground advantage,” Henriques had said.
Chris Scott shaking his head at the surface pre-game 😂#AFLSwansCats pic.twitter.com/ovI9dc1X0P
— 7AFL (@7AFL) August 17, 2025
Discussions between Cricket NSW and AFL authorities about introducing drop-in pitches at the SCG have stalled, despite Swans chairman Andrew Pridham advocating for the move.
“If they can land a man on the moon in 1969, they can certainly get a drop-in wicket onto the SCG in 2024. They can do it in pieces. It’s purely politics… the arguments about technological barriers are not substantiated,” Pridham had said earlier this year.
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Before the AFL season, the SCG hosted an Andrea Bocelli concert, and heavy rains in Sydney left parts of the ground—particularly the Paddington End—unstable and slippery during some matches. However, the area Scott referred to on Sunday was different.
“So that’s, again, for them to work through. But I mean, my position would be—if you think that’s optimal for AFL football, you don’t understand what’s optimal for AFL football. But again, not my concern really. Well, it was my concern today, but I wouldn’t read too much into my body language, if there was someone filming me and I didn’t know. Well, I guess it’s my chance to explain it—I wasn’t that worried. It was exactly what we expected. We rocked up here yesterday, and the center wicket’s covered. Not sure there’s much point having a training session the day before when the pitch is covered. It’s pretty much the reason we’re here,” Scott added.
