Displayed inside a showcase on the upper level of the Melbourne Cricket Ground rests a electric pink suit donned by Robbie Williams. The concert in front of 100,024 fans was seen as a triumph.
Perhaps you don't like the performer. Maybe you feel he is the greatest gift to music in history. Alternatively, you may hold a middle ground, conceding that some hits are fantastic while others are awful.
The central idea is that enjoyment can manifest in countless ways. You like what you like. There is not a single method to craft music or even the longest format.
The Incomparable Variety of Test Cricket
The five-day game boasts unrivalled depth. It is hard to think of another sport where the playing is so dependent on external factors.
The elements, the hour of play, the ball – the list is endless. Above all is the playing surface.
If Test cricket is a form of art, the pitch is the canvas on which the athletes create their art.
A Broken-Down Battle: The Fourth Test
The recent Melbourne match between Australia and England was an abstract version of cricket, the great game dismantled and stuck back together in an unusual manner.
Let's be clear, this isn't a justification of the surface which produced a triumph and the another short match of the series.
Allowing excessive grass on the surface, leading to 36 wickets tumbling in less than two days, is not a balanced duel between bat and ball.
A Rich Tapestry: The Core of Test Cricket
But any notion this was a diminished spectacle, one that should be marked with an asterisk as illegitimate, is mistaken.
The long game is a rich tapestry, 2,615 parts and ongoing. Sometimes, as witnessed recently, the cricket ball moves excessively for the fast men. In contrast, it spins sharply on a dry surface. Sometimes, the pitch is dead, other times it bounces unevenly.
The thrillers are all the more thrilling due to the investment made during quieter periods.
Problem Solving: The Core Skill
Specific conditions are accepted more easily than others.
The contention in during the match was that the contest was tipped too far towards the fielding side. That the skilled individuals were prevented from playing their natural game.
Test cricket is about finding solutions – interpreting the conditions and responding effectively. The two highest individual contributions were made by world-class stars. One side was less disciplined than the other, and thus lost.
Unbridled Joy: The Fan Perspective
Try telling the supporters who have endured years of defeat that this wasn't compelling.
Among the crowd of the MCG, countless fans celebrated and sang their songs, fostering a festive mood in a heartland of national pride.
There was optimism as the attack surged, advantage when players responded, and pure joy when the result was achieved.
Contrasting Examples: The Variety of Test Matches
The MCG has a history with pitch problems. Previously, a match there featured a strip with all the life of a a damp squib.
That contest was a slog, with limited drama and slow play. The two-day game and that previous match are diametrically opposed points of the range – one is not more ideal, yet historical weight can be found in both.
Four Tests into the current series, it is the two-day matches that will remain iconic in the history books.
"Far from being the end of Test cricket at all," commented a former player. "The people who have been fortunate to see these short time have been given some fantastic sport. A unique show."
Signs of Progress: Looking Ahead
In the preparation to this Test, the leader addressed the media like a man carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
The players delivered for him, reinstating the positive demeanor to his countenance.
Emerging talents stepped up with crucial roles. These are incremental gains, not nearly enough to ensure long-term stability, but something to use as a platform.
At the very least, this MCG win joins other historic performances in dead rubbers.
As the supporters slipped away into a stunning sunset, the squad assembled on the turf to start their own festivities.
Enjoy the drink, men. This victory was hard-fought.
