Within a glass case on the upper level of the MCG sits a neon pink suit worn by the entertainer. The show in front of 100,024 attendees was seen as a major hit.
It's possible you enjoy his music. You might think he is the finest offering to music the world has ever seen. You might take a balanced view, acknowledging that some songs are excellent while others are terrible.
The key argument is that amusement can be delivered diversely. Preferences differ. There is no one way to create music or even five-day cricket.
The Unrivalled Depth of The Test Format
Test cricket boasts incomparable variety. One struggles to think of another sport where the playing is so dictated by external factors.
The elements, the time of day, the ball – the factors are countless. Above all is the pitch.
If the long game is a form of art, the pitch is the blank slate on which the players paint their masterpiece.
A Test of Cubism: The Melbourne Spectacle
The Boxing Day fixture between Australia and England was Test cricket cubism, the traditional sport broken apart and reassembled in a bizarre shape.
It must be stated this is not a justification of the wicket which yielded a win and the second two-day Test of the contest.
Allowing 10mm of grass on the pitch, leading to 36 wickets being taken in less than a brief period, is not a balanced duel between bat and ball.
A Diverse Legacy: The Nature of Test Cricket
But any idea this was a diminished spectacle, one that should be qualified as not a proper Test, is incorrect.
The long game is a diverse canvas, over two thousand matches and counting. At times, like in Melbourne, the ball behaves unpredictably for the fast men. Sometimes, it turns square on a dust bowl. Sometimes, the pitch is flat as a pancake, other times it spits like a cobra.
The close matches are particularly captivating due to the time devoted during quieter periods.
Adaptation: The Core Skill
Some factors are tolerated more freely than others.
The argument in during the match was that the contest was skewed excessively towards the attack. That the top batters were hindered from demonstrating their skill.
This level of cricket is about finding solutions – assessing the situation and adapting accordingly. The two highest individual innings were made by recognized players. One line-up committed more errors than the other, and thus lost.
Sheer Celebration: For Those Who Waited
Try telling the fans who have endured years of defeat that this was not entertaining.
Among the crowd of the stadium, countless fans made noise and created an atmosphere, generating a festive mood in a stronghold of national pride.
There was belief as the bowlers surged, advantage when players scored quickly, and unconditional love when the result was secured.
Polar Opposites: The Spectrum of Test Matches
The Melbourne has a history with controversial surfaces. Eight years ago, a match there featured a pitch with the excitement of a a non-event.
That match was a slog, with limited drama and endless boredom. The latest encounter and that previous match are polar opposites of the scale – one is not more ideal, yet historical weight can be ascribed to both.
Four Tests into the current series, it is the two-day matches that will live longest in the collective consciousness.
"Far from being the death of Test cricket at all," observed a past champion. "Fans who have been lucky enough to see these two days have been treated to some genuine drama. An unusual spectacle."
Signs of Progress: A Glimmer of Hope
In the lead-in to this Test, the captain addressed the media like a man carrying the enormous pressure on his mind.
The team protected him, restoring the smile to his face.
New faces delivered with key contributions. These are incremental gains, certainly not enough to secure long-term stability, but a foundation to build on.
At the very least, this MCG win takes its place among other historic performances in similar circumstances.
As the crowd departed into a beautiful night, the team gathered on the field to begin their own celebrations.
Enjoy the drink, boys. This victory was hard-fought.
