Within a showcase on the elevated floor of the Melbourne Cricket Ground rests a electric pink ensemble donned by Robbie Williams. His performance in front of 100,024 attendees was considered a success.
It's possible you enjoy Robbie Williams. You might think he is the finest offering to music in history. You might take a middle ground, acknowledging that some songs are belting while others are terrible.
The point being is that entertainment can take many forms. You like what you like. There is not a single method to craft literature or even Test cricket.
The Incomparable Variety of The Long Game
The traditional format boasts peerless complexity. It's difficult to think of another sport where the playing is so dependent on external factors.
The elements, the time of day, the cricket ball – the variables are numerous. Above all is the playing surface.
If Test cricket is a form of art, the wicket is the foundation on which the athletes create their art.
An Abstract Contest: The MCG Match
The fourth Ashes Test between Australia and England was an abstract version of cricket, the great game dismantled and reconstructed in a bizarre shape.
This is not a defence of the pitch which resulted in a win and the another short match of the contest.
Having excessive grass on the pitch, causing 36 wickets tumbling in less than a brief period, is not a fair contest between batter and bowler.
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 mistaken.
Test cricket is a varied portfolio, 2,615 parts and still growing. Sometimes, like in Melbourne, the ball behaves unpredictably for the pace bowlers. Sometimes, it grips and turns on a spinning track. At other venues, the pitch is flat as a pancake, other times it bounces unevenly.
The close matches are all the more thrilling due to the investment devoted elsewhere.
Problem Solving: The True Test
Specific conditions are tolerated more freely than others.
The argument in at the MCG was that the balance was weighted unfairly towards the bowlers. That the best players were prevented from demonstrating their skill.
Test cricket is about finding solutions – reading the conditions and responding accordingly. The best individual scores were made by world-class batters. One side committed more errors than the other, and thus lost.
Pure Elation: For Those Who Waited
Try telling the devotees who have suffered years of defeat that this wasn't compelling.
In a corner of the ground, countless fans made noise and sang their songs, generating a carnival vibe in a bastion of national pride.
There was belief as the attack dominated, advantage when the top order fought back, and pure joy when the victory was achieved.
Polar Opposites: The Spectrum of Test Matches
The venue has a history with pitch problems. Previously, a game there featured a wicket with the excitement of a a non-event.
That fixture was a marathon, with minimal action and endless boredom. The latest encounter and that drawn affair are diametrically opposed points of the range – both are not ideal, yet value can be ascribed to them.
Four Tests into the current series, it is the quick finishes that will live longest in the memory.
"It's not the demise of the long game at all," observed a veteran. "Spectators who have been lucky enough to see these short time have been experienced some genuine drama. An unusual spectacle."
Signs of Progress: Building for the Future
In the build-up to this match, the leader spoke like a man carrying the weight of the world on his back.
The squad responded for him, bringing back the positive demeanor to his face.
New faces stepped up with vital performances. These are small positives, not nearly enough to ensure long-term stability, but something to use as a platform.
Ultimately, this triumph takes its place among other notable performances in dead rubbers.
As the crowd departed into a glorious Melbourne evening, the squad congregated on the outfield to begin their own festivities.
Celebrate the win, boys. You've earned this one.
