Graphic: Getting spin at the Swalec

This time, it will not be the first ball that defines the Ashes series, whether or not the opening batsman is struck on the arm or it goes straight to second slip.

This time, the determining factor will be the nature of the pitch cut for the inaugural Test match in Cardiff, starting on July 8. Pity, then, the new head groundsman, Keith Exton, a man accustomed not to the international game but to preparing school grounds in a flatlands backwater.

Exton came to the SWALEC Stadium only in February, inheriting an outfield that had been dug up and a drainage system that had not worked. He is well aware that he would not have his job had not Len Smith, his predecessor, disappeared along with the eventual clearance of the rainwater after the abandoned one-day international against South Africa last summer. “Yes, I know I am under pressure,” Exton said as he gazed pragmatically at the square.

He reckons he knows already the kind of pitch the England selectors are anticipating. “I feel they will play two spinners — those are the signals that are being given out. So it would not surprise me if the Australians come down here to have a look at the surface and send for Shane Warne.”

Opinion was swiftly formed when Glamorgan were docked two points for next season’s Friends Provident Trophy for preparing a pitch that took excessive spin for a match against Essex in May. Exton discovered that the newly installed drainage system, coupled with flood amelioration on the River Taff, which runs past the ground, meant that the water table was not so high, the moisture content dried out and the hitherto damp soil, comprising one-third clay content, could now take pronounced spin. “I was reliant on information given to me, but it will not happen again — I am a better groundsman now because of what happened,” Exton said.

But there was worse. He discovered there was algae covering parts of the square. “We had to break it down, biologically and slowly, and take the dead residue of Ongar loam off the surface,” he said. “I was down on my hands and knees in February impregnating the gaps with my thumb.”

Exton could have remained at Oakham School, where he had been groundsman since 1992 and had watched Stuart Broad develop from a young age. David Steele, revered for his batting against Australia, was the cricket professional. Exton lived no great distance from Lincolnshire, where he and his wife, Sue, had grown up. Leicestershire played regularly on his square and his expertise was spotted by Chris Woods, the ECB’s pitches consultant, who recommended him to Glamorgan. By the time the Test is under way, only Margaret Thatcher will have done more to publicise his home town of Grantham.

Sue Exton began work on Glamorgan’s reception desk while her 55-year-old husband, a one-time club wicketkeeper — “the best position from which to judge the pitch” — came to terms with creating a Test strip in the midst of a reseeded outfield and rebuilt stadium. “If I could have brought my pitches at Oakham with me, I would have been very happy, but I am satisfied the algae is limited,” he said.

“If I am honest, I do not know how the pitch will play. No one has instructed me what to prepare, but I have to produce a solid deck with a balance between bat and ball. The pitches here lack pace and everything depends on the weather, but five days of sunshine will provide the ideal scenario: a bit of moisture in the top, some seam movement in the first session and then spin on the fourth day.

“Despite the new stands, there is no evidence of reverse swing on the ground. I can always feel air movement. Ideally I want temperatures of 18 to 20C (66-70F) in the build-up to the match and 24 to 25C during it, so that the pitch is bleached and the spinners come into their own.” Other details have not escaped Exton’s eye: he has installed wider sightscreens so as to accommodate the angle of Mitchell Johnson, the Australia left-arm fast bowler.

Exton is already working from 7am until 9pm each day in the run-up to the match, sporting a heavily bandaged forefinger. He cut it to the bone last week on a blade in one of his numerous items of equipment, necessitating a dreaded day off. He can afford no more of those as the clock in his hut opposite the pavilion counts down to the biggest event in his life, to say nothing of Welsh cricket.

Exton has the full support of Peter Walker, the former Glamorgan and England all-rounder who is president of the club. “He is under huge pressure and the penalty imposed after the match against Essex was not his fault,” Walker said. “He was appalled at the state of the pitch. There was not enough strength in the root growth, which was why the bounce was erratic. Chris Woods is confident the Test pitch will be OK.”