It was a busy day. First stop was St Kilda, for Australia's final practice before the Boxing Day Test, and some words from Steve Waugh. The Junction Oval is Shane Warne's home ground, and the Great One's presence was indicated by a gleaming grey Ferrari in the car park. In the shade of some palm trees the Aussies were going through their paces. After a good-natured slip-catching game, in which the crowd took a couple of blinders, it was down to serious business in the nets. Matthew Hayden must have upset somebody, because steaming in at him were Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Andy Bichel, all striving to outdo each other for outright speed and outrageous no-balls. The battle between Bichel and Lee seemed especially important, as they were widely thought to be fighting for the last place in the side. That was surely why the bleach-blond Bichel was grunting with exertion every time he bowled, wasn't it?

Actually it didn't matter. Jason Gillespie mooched away from the nets, with a twinge in the shoulder he had first injured at Adelaide. He was out of the game and off to hospital. Steve Waugh marched over to his press conference, still padded up, and dropped the minor bombshell. The first question on these occasions is supposed to be a gentle loosener: "Everything OK, Steve?" This time the reply got biros bobbing all round. "Well, Jason Gillespie's just pulled out, but apart from that …"

Being Australian captain is as close to royalty as you'll get Down Under. And Prince Tugga was suitably gracious as he left the press room and encountered a gaggle of bright-eyed kids. "Sorry boys, I've got to have another bat. I'll be about 20 minutes – but I'll come back this way and sign, promise."

But he couldn't sign my book, because 20 minutes later we were mingling with the Melbourne traffic, dicing with tramcars, Toorak BMWs and Christmas shoppers, for a peek at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Shaun Pollock was there, but since his chairman of selectors wasn't arriving until later in the evening, he wasn't giving much away about Donald or Klusener, or even himself. "No, I don't think I underbowled myself at Adelaide … No, I don't think I captained badly there – there's always things you look at later and might have done differently …"

I was more interested in the pitch. These days they grow all the strips in giant trays outside the MCG, then crane them in and lower them into position before the game. The Test pitch was dropped in about three weeks ago. It's hard, almost white, with a fair covering of bleached grass. Jacques Kallis came out, bent over, and rapped his knuckles on the strip. You could hear an almost hollow crack. Kallis straightened up with a smile on his open face. "Now that's what I call a batting pitch," he pronounced. Don't expect the captain winning the toss to field first, then.

The pitch itself looks fabulous, but you can't quite say the same about the rest of the square, usually the smoothest part of any ground to field on. The other drop-in pitches – and, as Eric Morecambe might have said, you can see the join – make the cover area a bit patchy. There might be a few fumbles in Jontyland come Boxing Day.

I tried to imagine what it must be like batting out there, in the shadow of the huge Great Southern Stand. You have to lean back a bit to see the sky over the top, and even then it's invaded by two of the giant white floodlight towers. But from the middle it doesn't look like quite such a huge ground, and I could see myself hitting a four there, or at least being hit for a few. At the other end is the patrician pavilion, soon to be torn down and replaced by an even Greater Northern Stand, which will make the ground look like a giant Polo mint from the air. It really will be hard to sniff the sky then.

There was something missing, of course – the 70,000-odd people who will brave the traffic jams on Boxing Day if it's as fine as forecast. All I had as I played my classical cover-drive were a couple of groundsmen and the bloke painting the sponsor's sign on the outfield. And try as I might I couldn't quite imagine what it must be like as a visiting batsman coming out to face the beery baying of Bay 13.

Steven Lynch will be writing live match reports for Wisden.com throughout the Melbourne and Sydney Tests, with Ian Healy, the record-breaking Australian wicketkeeper, providing his authoritative Session by Session comments.

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