In a showcase on the third floor of the iconic Melbourne stadium is housed a electric pink suit performed in by the pop star. His show in front of 100,024 spectators was hailed as a success.
You might not enjoy Robbie Williams. Perhaps you believe he is the ultimate present to music the world has ever seen. You might take a balanced view, admitting that some tracks are belting while others are terrible.
The central idea is that amusement can take many forms. Tastes vary. There is no one way to craft art or even the longest format.
The Unrivalled Depth of Test Cricket
Test cricket boasts peerless complexity. It is hard to think of another sport where the contest is so dependent on conditions.
The weather, the hour of play, the cricket ball – the factors are countless. Most important is the wicket.
If the long game is a form of art, the wicket is the foundation on which the cricketers craft their legacy.
A Test of Cubism: The MCG Match
The fourth Ashes Test between the old rivals was an abstract version of cricket, the traditional sport dismantled and reassembled in an unusual manner.
This is not a justification of the surface which produced a win and the another sub-three-day finish of the contest.
Allowing 10mm of grass on the surface, leading to 36 wickets being taken in less than six sessions, is not a fair contest between offense and defense.
A Varied History: The Nature of Test Cricket
But any idea this was a inferior show, one that should be marked with an asterisk as inauthentic, is mistaken.
Test cricket is a varied portfolio, over two thousand matches and ongoing. At times, like in Melbourne, the cricket ball behaves unpredictably for the fast men. Other times, it grips and turns on a spinning track. At other venues, the pitch is flat as a pancake, other times it spits like a cobra.
The close matches are all the more thrilling due to the investment committed elsewhere.
Adaptation: The True Test
Certain variables are tolerated more freely than others.
The contention in Melbourne was that the contest was skewed excessively towards the fielding side. That the best players were unable from demonstrating their skill.
This level of cricket is about problem solving – reading the situation and adapting accordingly. The top two individual innings were made by world-class players. One side committed more errors than the other, and thus lost.
Pure Elation: The Fan Perspective
Try telling the supporters who have endured 18 winless matches that this was not entertaining.
Among the crowd of the stadium, thousands waved their flags and sang their songs, fostering a festive mood in a stronghold of national pride.
There was optimism as the fielding side dominated, advantage when batters fought back, and rapturous celebration when the win was secured.
Polar Opposites: The Spectrum of Test Matches
The MCG has previous experience with controversial surfaces. Previously, a game there featured a strip with the character of a pulled Christmas cracker.
That contest was a slog, with limited drama and slow play. This recent match and that drawn affair are extreme ends of the scale – both are not the standard, yet historical weight can be ascribed to them.
Deep into the series into the current series, it is the shortest games that will live longest in the memory.
"Far from being the death of Test cricket at all," observed a veteran. "Fans who have been fortunate to see these 48 hours have been experienced some real entertainment. An unusual spectacle."
Signs of Progress: Looking Ahead
In the build-up to this match, the leader spoke like a man carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
The squad delivered for him, reinstating the smile to his persona.
Emerging talents stepped up with key contributions. These are incremental gains, certainly not enough to ensure long-term success, but something to build on.
Ultimately, this Melbourne victory joins other historic performances in meaningless games.
As the crowd left into a beautiful night, the squad assembled on the turf to start their own celebrations.
Celebrate the win, men. You've earned this one.
