In a display cabinet on the upper level of the Melbourne Cricket Ground rests a electric pink suit worn by the entertainer. His concert in front of 100,024 spectators was hailed as a success.
Perhaps you don't enjoy Robbie Williams. Maybe you feel he is the greatest gift to music the world has ever seen. You might take a balanced view, conceding that some hits are belting while others are terrible.
The key argument is that enjoyment can be delivered diversely. Preferences differ. 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's difficult to think of another sport where the outcome is so reliant upon external factors.
The weather, the time of day, the cricket ball – the factors are countless. Above all is the playing surface.
If the long game is an artistic pursuit, the wicket is the canvas on which the players create their art.
A Test of Cubism: The MCG Match
The fourth Ashes Test between Australia and England was an abstract version of cricket, the great game taken to pieces and reconstructed in a bizarre shape.
This is not a defence of the wicket which yielded a victory and the another short match of the series.
Leaving excessive grass on the wicket, resulting in numerous dismissals being taken in less than two days, is not a fair contest between offense and defense.
A Varied History: The Nature of Test Cricket
But any suggestion this was a diminished spectacle, one that should be marked with an asterisk as inauthentic, is wide of the mark.
The long game is a diverse canvas, over two thousand matches and counting. On occasion, as seen at the MCG, the ball moves excessively for the seamers. Other times, it turns square on a spinning track. At other venues, the pitch is unresponsive, other times it explodes.
The exciting finishes are all the more thrilling owing to the patience devoted during quieter periods.
Problem Solving: The Real Challenge
Some factors are accepted more easily than others.
The debate in Melbourne was that the equilibrium was weighted unfairly towards the attack. That the top batters were prevented from demonstrating their skill.
The format is about finding solutions – assessing the situation and adjusting accordingly. The best individual innings were made by world-class stars. One team was less disciplined than the other, and thus were defeated.
Pure Elation: The Fan Perspective
Try telling the fans who have experienced a long drought that this lacked spectacle.
Among the crowd of the stadium, a sea of people waved their flags and sang their songs, producing a carnival vibe in a heartland of sport.
There was optimism as the bowlers excelled, momentum when batters fought back, and rapturous celebration when the win was secured.
Extreme Ends: The Spectrum of Test Matches
The venue has a history with pitch problems. Previously, a game there featured a wicket with all the life of a a non-event.
That contest was a slog, with minimal action and interminable tedium. This recent match and that drawn affair are polar opposites of the scale – one is not more the standard, yet significance can be ascribed to both.
Four Tests into the Ashes contest, it is the two-day matches that will remain iconic in the history books.
"It's not the end of the long game at all," said a veteran. "The people who have been lucky enough to see these two days have been experienced some real entertainment. Different entertainment."
Small Victories: A Glimmer of Hope
In the preparation to this Test, the skipper addressed the media like a man carrying the heavy burden on his back.
The players delivered for him, bringing back the positive demeanor to his face.
New faces delivered with vital performances. These are small positives, not nearly enough to ensure long-term success, but something to use as a platform.
At the very least, this triumph is added to other notable performances in dead rubbers.
As the fans departed into a glorious Melbourne evening, the players assembled on the field to commence their own enjoyment.
Celebrate the win, boys. You've earned this one.
