| You may remember the days, not terribly long ago, | | | | slab was imperative but inevitably slapdash as the |
| when just about every park and football oval in | | | | pressure was on to get the game started. |
| Australia was adorned with a slab of concrete around | | | | A knock of 50 was a cherished, hard won |
| 22 metres long and 3 metres wide sitting slap bang in | | | | achievement when you were happy enough to |
| the centre. In the winter months it may have been | | | | simply slope off the ground with your head still |
| covered with a thin layer of soil if you were lucky. In | | | | attached to your shoulders. |
| the summer months it was covered by a couple of | | | | The mats are gone today. Synthetic grass pitches |
| coir mats that didn't quite meet in the middle. That's | | | | have replaced the concrete and mats and it's like |
| right, I'm talking about the cricket pitches that used | | | | batting in the lap of luxury. Laid on top of the old |
| to be the domain of the Saturday arvo cricketer. | | | | concrete a rubber shock-pad is first put down to |
| There was no such thing as a synthetic grass pitch in | | | | give the surface a firm base. Then the polyethylene |
| the 1970s and before. You either played in the big | | | | synthetic grass is laid which is a medium pile grass |
| leagues on a turf pitch or you were consigned to the | | | | that has non-abrasive qualities. Not only must the |
| bewildering minefield of playing on mats. | | | | surface be firm enough and durable enough to |
| The idea of making kids bat without helmets on a | | | | withstand missiles hitting it at pace, it also has to be |
| mat-covered surface with two massive seams at | | | | pliable enough to both maintain the surface of the ball |
| mid-pitch where the mats didn't quite meet is quite | | | | as well as protect the winter sports participants. |
| amazing these days. | | | | With the new synthetic grass cricket pitches, |
| The Saturday morning operation of picking up the | | | | batsmen can now rely on an even surface to bat on. |
| threadbare mats from the home ground sheds, | | | | Bowlers get a slightly springy pitch from which you |
| lugging them out to the coaches car and hoisting | | | | can still extract some movement. And winter |
| them on the roof-racks are still etched in my | | | | sportsmen no longer have to worry about the |
| memory. Right along with the short pitched delivery | | | | dangers of being tackled on the cricket pitch area. |
| that either took off and arrowed in at the throat | | | | The coir mat has been rolled up and loaded onto the |
| after hitting the edge of the mat. Pegging the mats | | | | coaches car at the end of a hard day in the field for |
| out so they were more or less flat on the concrete | | | | the last time. |