Displayed inside a display cabinet on the elevated floor of the Melbourne Cricket Ground sits a electric pink suit performed in by Robbie Williams. The concert in front of a hundred thousand attendees was considered a triumph.
It's possible you like the performer. Maybe you feel he is the finest offering to music in history. You might take a middle ground, conceding that some tracks are belting while others are poor.
The point being is that entertainment can be delivered diversely. Preferences differ. There is not a single method to craft music or even five-day cricket.
The Unrivalled Depth of Test Cricket
Test cricket boasts peerless complexity. One struggles to think of another sport where the contest is so dependent on external factors.
The elements, the hour of play, the red ball – the list is endless. Above all is the pitch.
If the long game is a form of art, the wicket is the blank slate on which the athletes paint their masterpiece.
An Abstract Contest: The Melbourne Spectacle
The Boxing Day fixture between the two sides was the game deconstructed, the traditional sport broken apart and reassembled in abstract form.
Let's be clear, this isn't a defence of the pitch which yielded a win and the second two-day Test of the contest.
Having 10mm of grass on the pitch, resulting in a cascade of wickets being taken in less than six sessions, is not an even battle between batter and bowler.
A Varied History: The Essence of Test Cricket
But any idea this was a inferior show, one that should be marked with an asterisk as inauthentic, is incorrect.
The format is a varied portfolio, a long history and ongoing. Sometimes, as seen at the MCG, the cricket ball behaves unpredictably for the seamers. Sometimes, it turns square on a spinning track. Sometimes, the pitch is dead, other times it explodes.
The exciting finishes are particularly captivating owing to the patience devoted during quieter periods.
Problem Solving: The Real Challenge
Some factors are tolerated more easily than others.
The argument in at the MCG was that the contest was tipped too far towards the bowlers. That the top batters were hindered from playing their natural game.
This level of cricket is about adapting to challenges – assessing the wicket and responding appropriately. The best individual scores were made by acknowledged stars. One side committed more errors than the other, and thus lost.
Unbridled Joy: For Those Who Waited
Try telling the devotees who have suffered 18 winless matches that this was not entertaining.
In a corner of the MCG, a sea of people celebrated and chanted, generating a party atmosphere in a bastion of Australian cricket.
There was optimism as the bowlers excelled, momentum when players scored quickly, and unconditional love when the win was achieved.
Extreme Ends: The Spectrum of Test Matches
The Melbourne has a history with pitch problems. In the past, a match there featured a wicket with all the life of a a damp squib.
That fixture was a slog, with minimal action and interminable tedium. The latest encounter and that slow Test are diametrically opposed points of the range – neither the standard, yet value can be ascribed to each.
At this stage into the Ashes contest, it is the shortest games that will be most remembered in the collective consciousness.
"It's not the death of Test cricket at all," observed a past champion. "Spectators who have been lucky enough to see these 48 hours have been experienced some real entertainment. A unique show."
Baby Steps: Building for the Future
In the preparation to this match, the captain addressed the media like a man carrying the weight of the world on his back.
The players delivered for him, restoring the joy to his countenance.
New faces stepped up with vital performances. These are incremental gains, certainly not enough to secure long-term futures, but a starting point to build on.
In the end, this Melbourne victory joins other notable performances in dead rubbers.
As the crowd departed into a beautiful night, the squad assembled on the turf to begin their own festivities.
Celebrate the win, boys. You've earned this one.
