Displayed inside a showcase on the third floor of the Melbourne Cricket Ground sits a electric pink outfit donned by Robbie Williams. His concert in front of 100,024 attendees was hailed as a success.
You might not appreciate his music. Maybe you feel he is the ultimate present to music in history. You might take a reasonable stance, acknowledging that some tracks are belting while others are terrible.
The central idea is that entertainment can take many forms. Tastes vary. There is no one way to create music or even the longest format.
The Incomparable Variety of Test Cricket
The five-day game boasts incomparable variety. It is hard to think of another sport where the playing is so reliant upon external factors.
The weather, the hour of play, the cricket ball – the list is endless. Crucially is the pitch.
If the long game is art, the strip is the foundation on which the athletes craft their legacy.
A Test of Cubism: The Fourth Test
The fourth Ashes Test between the old rivals was an abstract version of cricket, the traditional sport taken to pieces and reassembled in a bizarre shape.
Let's be clear, this isn't a endorsement of the surface which produced a win and the second two-day Test of the Ashes battle.
Leaving a thick layer on the wicket, resulting in 36 wickets falling in less than a brief period, is not a fair contest between batter and bowler.
A Rich Tapestry: The Essence of Test Cricket
But any idea this was a diminished spectacle, one that should be marked with an asterisk as illegitimate, is mistaken.
Test cricket is a rich tapestry, a long history and ongoing. On occasion, like in Melbourne, the cricket ball does all sorts for the seamers. Other times, it spins sharply on a spinning track. At other venues, the pitch is dead, other times it explodes.
The close matches are all the more thrilling due to the time made in other matches.
Adjustment: The Core Skill
Specific conditions are embraced more readily than others.
The argument in during the match was that the contest was tipped too far towards the fielding side. That the best players were prevented from demonstrating their skill.
Test cricket is about adapting to challenges – assessing the conditions and adapting appropriately. The two highest individual innings were made by recognized players. One side committed more errors than the other, and thus lost.
Sheer Celebration: The Supporters' View
Attempt to convince the supporters who have endured 18 winless matches that this was not entertaining.
In one section of the stadium, countless fans waved their flags and chanted, fostering a carnival vibe in a bastion of Australian cricket.
There was belief as the bowlers dominated, impetus when the top order responded, and rapturous celebration when the result was achieved.
Extreme Ends: The Variety of Test Matches
The Melbourne has previous experience with difficult wickets. Eight years ago, a game there featured a pitch with the excitement of a a damp squib.
That contest was a grind, with minimal action and interminable tedium. The two-day game and that slow Test are extreme ends of the scale – neither perfect, yet value can be attached to them.
Four Tests into the ongoing battle, it is the shortest games that will be most remembered in the history books.
"It's not the demise of Test cricket at all," commented a veteran. "The people who have been privileged to see these short time have been given some fantastic sport. An unusual spectacle."
Signs of Progress: Looking Ahead
In the lead-in to this Test, the skipper spoke like a man carrying the weight of the world on his mind.
The players responded for him, restoring the smile to his persona.
Emerging talents stepped up with vital performances. These are incremental gains, certainly not enough to ensure long-term stability, but a starting point to build on.
At the very least, this triumph takes its place among other notable performances in dead rubbers.
As the fans departed into a stunning sunset, the players assembled on the outfield to begin their own festivities.
Savour the moment, boys. It's well deserved.
