In a display cabinet on the upper level of the Melbourne Cricket Ground rests a electric pink suit donned by Robbie Williams. The show in front of 100,024 attendees was hailed as a major hit.
It's possible you enjoy his music. Maybe you feel he is the finest offering to music the world has ever seen. You might take a balanced view, acknowledging that some hits are fantastic while others are awful.
The central idea is that enjoyment can take many forms. Tastes vary. There is no one way to create literature or even five-day cricket.
The Unrivalled Depth of The Test Format
Test cricket boasts peerless complexity. One struggles to think of another sport where the playing is so reliant upon the environment.
The elements, the hour of play, the red ball – the factors are countless. Most important is the pitch.
If Test cricket is a form of art, the pitch is the blank slate on which the cricketers paint their masterpiece.
An Abstract Contest: The Fourth Test
The Boxing Day fixture between Australia and England was Test cricket cubism, the great game broken apart and reassembled in a bizarre shape.
This is not a endorsement of the surface which produced a win and the another short match of the Ashes battle.
Leaving a thick layer on the surface, resulting in 36 wickets being taken in less than two days, is not a balanced duel between batter and bowler.
A Varied History: The Essence of Test Cricket
But any notion this was a lesser event, one that should be footnoted as inauthentic, is mistaken.
The long game is a rich tapestry, over two thousand matches and counting. Sometimes, like in Melbourne, the cricket ball behaves unpredictably for the fast men. Other times, it spins sharply on a spinning track. At other venues, the pitch is dead, other times it explodes.
The thrillers are all the more thrilling due to the patience committed in other matches.
Adaptation: The True Test
Specific conditions are embraced more easily than others.
The debate in at the MCG was that the balance was tipped too far towards the attack. That the best players were hindered from playing their natural game.
Test cricket is about adapting to challenges – interpreting the situation and adapting accordingly. The best individual contributions were made by world-class players. One side was less disciplined than the other, and thus ended up second best.
Unbridled Joy: For Those Who Waited
Try telling the fans who have experienced a long drought that this was not entertaining.
Among the crowd of the MCG, thousands celebrated and chanted, generating a party atmosphere in a bastion of national pride.
There was belief as the attack dominated, impetus when batters responded, and pure joy when the result was confirmed.
Extreme Ends: The Variety of Test Matches
The venue has form with pitch problems. In the past, a game there featured a wicket with all the life of a pulled Christmas cracker.
That match was a marathon, with few wickets and endless boredom. The latest encounter and that slow Test are diametrically opposed points of the scale – both are not perfect, yet historical weight can be attached to them.
Four Tests into the Ashes contest, it is the two-day matches that will live longest in the memory.
"This isn't the death of the long game at all," observed a former player. "Fans who have been lucky enough to see these two days have been experienced some genuine drama. Different entertainment."
Baby Steps: Building for the Future
In the preparation to this match, the skipper talked like a man carrying the heavy burden on his mind.
The players delivered for him, reinstating the joy to his countenance.
New faces delivered with crucial roles. These are baby steps, not nearly enough to ensure long-term stability, but a foundation to develop from.
Ultimately, this MCG win takes its place among other notable performances in meaningless games.
As the supporters departed into a stunning sunset, the squad assembled on the turf to start their own enjoyment.
Savour the moment, men. You've earned this one.
