Turf rolled out for Boxing Day

The portable pitches have been dropped into the MCG's centre, and the turf is being rolled out for this year's Boxing Day Test between Australian and Pakistan from December 26 to 30.

Work began immediately after the AFL Grand Final in late-September to prepare the MCG for its role as the main stadium for the 2006 Commonwealth Games and the Melbourne Cricket Club is confident that this year's Test match will be played at the MCG as scheduled.

"I know if you look at other venues around Australia at the moment, and they're all in fantastic condition, and we still are a construction and building site," MCC arenas manager Tony Ware said.

"But we'll come together pretty quickly. We've started to put the sand down for the grass to go on and once we lay the grass, it is ready go straight away."

Ware says it's the biggest surface works performed at the ground in its 150 years.

"Ultimately it will be, because we're building the track works in as well as what we're doing with the field," Ware said. "It'll never be the same again," said Ware in classic understatement as he outlined the arena renovation and track installation plans.

First, to comply with specifications for the athletics competition, the track must be laid on a completely flat surface.

"That means we needed to take the crown off the ground which in turn means we needed to remove the concrete slab under the centre wicket area," said Tony.

"Then we had to lay the track base and channelling to a depth which entailed replacing the entire irrigation and drainage system. Next step was to pour the new centre wicket slab and install the portable pitches, which we have now completed.

Finally, we've re-established the arena's sand-based profile and are now relaying the entire surface with Motz Stabiliser turf."

The centre wicket slabbing removed and repoured 70cm lower than before is 700 square metres of 20cm-deep concrete.

Laying the track base involves 8000 square metres of crushed rock and there will be about seven kilometres of drainage pipes laid, plus irrigation piping for nearly 100 sprinkler points around the ground.

After the sub-surface work is finished, a completely new sand profile will be installed and 20,000 square metres of Motz turf laid in readiness for the 2004 Boxing Day Test between Australia and Pakistan and other fixtures over summer.

This exercise will be the equivalent of the massive 1992 reconstruction of the ground, and then some.

The 2005 football season proceeds normally but in the spring of that year the field will be "topped" to expose the athletics track, the long jump run-up and so on.

"About mid-December next year, it will look like an athletics field," Ware said.

Then another layer of sandfill and a new layer of turf will be placed over the athletics field in time for the 2005 Boxing Day Test.

When the cricket season ends, those layers will be removed, new turf will be laid around the track-and-field facilities, and, in late-February, 2006, the MCG will be ready for the Commonwealth Games.