Big changes at County Ground

Sussex groundsman Andy Mackay is on a mission. He is as fed up with the slow, low-bouncing nature of the Hove wickets as players and spectators alike and is doing something about it.

Mackay has begun the process of re-laying the Hove square – all 18 wickets, 11 of which are used for first-team matches.

And by 2017 he believes he will have restored the County Ground to its halcyon days of the 1980s when speedsters like Imran Khan and Garth Le Roux used to kick off the sight-screens and Hove was regarded as the quickest wicket in the country.

He said: “It’s about time we did something about the wickets here. Even when we have a good wicket, such as Worcestershire last season when we left some grass on, it was still comparitively low and slow.”

Umpires and pitch inspectors crack down on counties who produce under-prepared or damp pitches that spark a clatter of wickets but there is an argument that the type of slow, low-bouncing strips which have become the norm at Hove and elsewhere in the country in recent years are just as bad for the game.

They may have suited Mushtaq Ahmed, but were a graveyard for quicker bowlers and it’s not hard to see why. Astonishingly, when one of Mackay’s predecessors, Derek Traill, re-laid two pitches in 2000 (even using seaweed because of its mineral content) it was the first time since Sussex started playing at Hove 130 years ago.

The sight of slip cordons standing two or three yards closer to the pitch than would normally be the case, edges not carrying and bowlers kicking the air in frustration has become the norm.

Mackay said: “Hove was unusual in the pace and bounce it offered in the 1980s but whereas other counties re-laid wickets, we didn’t and the conventional wisdom is that the lifespan of a first-class wicket is 10-25 years.

“We could have messed about for years and ended up with mediocrity but no one wants that. We need to dig the square up and start again but the aim is to have the quickest, bounciest pitches in the country.”

The problem at the moment is that when the square dries out the sub-surface fractures and the grass roots break causing horizontal voids beneath the surface. When the ball pitches, its energy is absorbed into the voids rather than returning to the ball which causes low bounce.

The process began last September when Mackay and his staff re-laid three wickets.

The base Mackay has used is gravel rather than soil with a distinctive loam, which is also used at Wimbledon and Manchester United’s Old Trafford, on top.

Mackay added: “Re-laying wickets is not an exact science and things could go wrong. If all goes to plan we will have re-laid the square by 2017 but it could take eight or nine years.

“It’s very exciting but also quite scary and we won’t know for sure how it goes until you actually play on it. It’s quite a leap of faith but I want Sussex to have the best pitches in the country. Hopefully they will be complaining in the future that the wickets are too quick!”

Putting three wickets out of commission each year will stretch one of the smallest squares in the country.

Last year, as Sussex enjoyed their most successful ever season in one-day cricket, Mackay had run out of new pitches by the time they played Australia in mid-June. The last two Championship games, which Sussex lost to confirm relegation, were both played on re-laid wickets.

The one-day pitches produced a glut of runs, mainly because Mackay tended to glue them to prolong their use.

“It makes them easy-paced with no variable bounce so batsmen can just stand there and slap the ball about,” he said.

“But glueing pitches is not something I want to do a lot this season because it does make growing the grass back a lot harder and we wouldn’t have to do it when the wickets are re-laid.”

His relationship with coach Mark Robinson is one of the most important at the club. Some of his predecessors were accused of doing their own thing but Mackay knows who is boss.

“Everything we do as groundsmen is for Robbo – he is our customer,” he added. “We have to meet his expectations and needs but he is good to work with because he has so much experience.

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