BBL stars weigh in after Pakistan's stunning Manuka pitch doctoring claim

Mohammad Hafeez - the Pakistan coach and former all-rounder - has fired a shot at Manuka Oval and suggested Australian tactics may have been at play when curators prepared the pitch for last week's Prime Minister's XI fixture.

Just 13 wickets fell across the first three days of the tour match before the final day was abandoned after a freakish storm on Friday evening blew the covers off and wet the square.

But Sydney Thunder captain Chris Green gave credit to the Manuka Oval ground staff for the pitch they produced for a Big Bash game against the Brisbane Heat on Tuesday night, which Brisbane claimed by 20 runs.

Now Pakistan - with just four Test wins on Australian soil in history - are preparing for the opening Test of a three-match series in a city renowned for fast and bouncy pitches.

It will be a completely different scenario to the one that faced in Manuka, but Pakistan officials didn't air their concerns until after arriving in Perth.

The Canberra Times asked to speak to members of the Pakistan team after the Prime Minister's XI game was abandoned on Saturday, but was told they were unavailable.

The ACT government oversees Manuka Oval operations via its Venues Canberra department. The government said Cricket ACT was responsible for answering questions about the pitch.

When Cricket ACT was contacted to respond to Pakistan's allegations of pitch doctoring, a spokesperson referred to a statement from Cricket Australia's operations boss, Peter Roach.

"The match was played on a safe surface, but with little life in the pitch for the players," Roach said.

"It was disappointing but exceptional circumstances did present leading into the match which made getting pace and bounce challenging."

The Manuka Oval surface was ripped up at the end of the football season in September and replaced, putting the groundsmen in a 70-day race to get the field ready for cricket.

New turf was trucked in from Adelaide and the ground was revamped for the summer of cricket.

The outfield was slow for the Prime Minister's XI fixture, with several balls slowing on the way to the boundary and Pakistan was unimpressed by the warm-up game in Canberra.

"We ticked most of the boxes as a team, but obviously really surprised and disappointed with the arrangements in Canberra," Hafeez said.

"The pitch we received for the practice [match in Canberra], that was the slowest we can ever, ever play on as a visiting team in Australia."

Missing in the Pakistan coach's assessment was the fact 120 millimetres of rain fell in Canberra in the week leading up to the Prime Minister's XI fixture, which robbed the ground staff of two days' worth of preparation and hurt their hopes of producing a fast wicket.

CA officials say disease presented when the covers were on, taking the life out of the live grass. The pitch had already been prepared early due to the impending rain, which meant moisture levels had to be increased and maintained leading into the game. The normal preparation is to wet and then gradually reduce the moisture.

The suggestion a slow deck had been prepared to hinder Pakistan's preparations has also been shot down, considering Australian selectors were using the game as a Test selection audition with Cameron Bancroft, Matt Renshaw and Marcus Harris duelling to become David Warner's replacement later this summer.

"The disappointment was really high because we were not expecting these kinds of arrangements," Hafeez said. "Some of it was maybe tactics."

A question for the bottom of a bottle cap: which professional cricketer had two matches washed out on the same day?

The answer is Nathan McSweeney, the 24-year-old who captained the Prime Minister's XI against Pakistan in Canberra last week. When day four of the tour game was abandoned, McSweeney flew to Adelaide with the intention of playing for the Heat in the Big Bash that night - only for the match to be washed out.

So few would have been as happy to see the first ball on Tuesday night as McSweeney, who added 29 to help Brisbane to a 20-run win over the Thunder at Manuka Oval.

As for how the pitch played this time around?

"The pitch was pretty good. When we've come down here, we've been blessed with absolute belters," Thunder captain Chris Green said.

"We all saw in the week the covers blew off, so full credit to the groundsmen for getting a really good wicket up considering the circumstances they had to go through.

"Conducive to spin, so I was happy, Tanveer [Sangha] was happy, I'm sure [Mitch] Swepson and [Matthew] Kuhnemman were pretty happy as well. The guys who took the pace off or hit the top of the stumps were really successful.

"I think the Heat played it well."

Colin Munro top scored with 46 from 33 balls to continue his hot start to the tournament, while Tanveer Sangha was the pick of the Thunder bowlers with 3-21 from four overs as Brisbane posted 7-151 after being sent in.

A golden duck to Alex Hales saw Sydney's run chase off to a nightmare start. Green [30 from 20] gave his side a glimmer of hope late in the run chase. The 30-year-old began clobbering balls to the boundary to bring the Canberra crowd to life, only for the Heat to run through Sydney's tail with the Thunder all out for 131.

"When we rocked up at the ground today, we thought 190 was probably going to be a par score on that. It just looked flat, and that was a big misread," Heat spinner Swepson said after claiming 2-26 on his way to man of the match honours.

"It held a little bit in the wicket and the outfield was really spongey and slow, so it just took a few runs away. We saw McSweeney hit a couple of really nice drives down the ground and he only got two for them.

"Serious effort from our bowling attack to defend that under pressure."

Maybe the Thunder could have used Sam Williams after all.

Wearing lime green with the No.7 on his back, the former Canberra Raiders halfback - who has been a shining light in the Cricket ACT first grade competition - delivered the celebrity first ball as BBL bosses take a page out of baseball's customary ceremonial first pitch.