Displayed inside a display cabinet on the upper level of the Melbourne Cricket Ground sits a neon pink outfit worn by Robbie Williams. The show in front of 100,024 spectators was considered a triumph.
It's possible you like his music. Maybe you feel he is the finest offering to music in history. You might take a middle ground, acknowledging that some songs are excellent while others are terrible.
The point being is that enjoyment can manifest in countless ways. Preferences differ. There is not a single method to produce art or even Test cricket.
The Unrivalled Depth of Test Cricket
Test cricket boasts incomparable variety. One struggles to think of another sport where the contest is so dictated by the environment.
The elements, the session, the ball – the factors are countless. Most important is the wicket.
If Test cricket is art, the pitch is the foundation on which the players paint their masterpiece.
An Abstract Contest: The MCG Match
The Boxing Day fixture between Australia and England was an abstract version of cricket, the great game taken to pieces and reconstructed in an unusual manner.
This is not a defence of the surface which resulted in a win and the another short match of the contest.
Allowing a thick layer on the pitch, resulting in a cascade of wickets falling in less than two days, is not a fair contest between bat and ball.
A Varied History: The Nature of Test Cricket
But any idea this was a lesser event, one that should be marked with an asterisk as inauthentic, is mistaken.
The long game is a rich tapestry, over two thousand matches and ongoing. Sometimes, as witnessed recently, the ball behaves unpredictably for the seamers. Other times, it grips and turns on a spinning track. At other venues, the pitch is dead, other times it bounces unevenly.
The exciting finishes are all the more thrilling because of the time committed in other matches.
Adjustment: The True Test
Some factors are tolerated more easily than others.
The contention in Melbourne was that the contest was tipped too far towards the attack. That the skilled individuals were prevented from playing their natural game.
This level of cricket is about finding solutions – interpreting the conditions and adjusting accordingly. The best individual scores were made by world-class stars. One team committed more errors than the other, and thus lost.
Unbridled Joy: The Supporters' View
Attempt to convince the supporters who have suffered years of defeat that this wasn't compelling.
In one section of the MCG, a sea of people waved their flags and sang their songs, fostering a festive mood in a stronghold of sport.
There was hope as the attack dominated, advantage when players scored quickly, and unconditional love when the victory was secured.
Extreme Ends: The Variety of Test Matches
The venue has previous experience with difficult wickets. Previously, a game there featured a strip with the excitement of a a non-event.
That fixture was a marathon, with minimal action and endless boredom. This recent match and that slow Test are polar opposites of the spectrum – one is not more the standard, yet significance can be ascribed to each.
At this stage into the current series, it is the shortest games that will live longest in the memory.
"This isn't the death of Test cricket at all," said a former player. "Spectators who have been privileged to see these two days have been given some fantastic sport. An unusual spectacle."
Baby Steps: Building for the Future
In the build-up to this Test, the skipper spoke like a man carrying the enormous pressure on his mind.
The team delivered for him, bringing back the positive demeanor to his face.
Emerging talents performed with crucial roles. These are small positives, not nearly enough to ensure long-term success, but something to develop from.
In the end, this Melbourne victory is added to other memorable performances in dead rubbers.
As the supporters departed into a glorious Melbourne evening, the squad assembled on the turf to commence their own celebrations.
Enjoy the drink, boys. It's well deserved.
