Within a glass case on the third floor of the Melbourne Cricket Ground is housed a vibrant pink outfit performed in by the entertainer. The show in front of a hundred thousand fans was hailed as a triumph.
It's possible you appreciate the performer. You might think he is the finest offering to music in history. Or you could adopt a middle ground, admitting that some songs are belting while others are poor.
The point being is that enjoyment can manifest in countless ways. You like what you like. There is not a single method to create literature or even Test cricket.
The Incomparable Variety of Test Cricket
The traditional format boasts unrivalled depth. It is hard to think of another sport where the contest is so reliant upon external factors.
The climate, the time of day, the cricket ball – the list is endless. Most important is the playing surface.
If the long game is an artistic pursuit, the strip is the foundation on which the players craft their legacy.
A Broken-Down Battle: The Melbourne Spectacle
The Boxing Day fixture between the old rivals was an abstract version of cricket, the established format broken apart and stuck back together in an unusual manner.
Let's be clear, this isn't a defence of the surface which resulted in a triumph and the another sub-three-day finish of the contest.
Allowing 10mm of grass on the wicket, causing a cascade of wickets tumbling in less than six sessions, is not a fair contest between bat and ball.
A Diverse Legacy: The Core of Test Cricket
But any idea this was a lesser event, one that should be marked with an asterisk as inauthentic, is mistaken.
The format is a diverse canvas, over two thousand matches and still growing. At times, like in Melbourne, the cricket ball behaves unpredictably for the pace bowlers. Other times, it turns square on a dust bowl. Sometimes, the pitch is flat as a pancake, other times it bounces unevenly.
The exciting finishes are all the more thrilling owing to the time committed in other matches.
Problem Solving: The Core Skill
Certain variables are tolerated more freely than others.
The argument in during the match was that the contest was skewed excessively towards the fielding side. That the skilled individuals were hindered from playing their natural game.
Test cricket is about problem solving – interpreting the situation and adapting accordingly. The top two individual contributions were made by world-class stars. One side committed more errors than the other, and thus lost.
Sheer Celebration: For Those Who Waited
Go and inform the fans who have experienced years of defeat that this wasn't compelling.
In a corner of the ground, countless fans celebrated and sang their songs, fostering a party atmosphere in a bastion of sport.
There was belief as the bowlers dominated, advantage when batters fought back, and pure joy when the victory was confirmed.
Extreme Ends: The Spectrum of Test Matches
The venue has a history with controversial surfaces. Eight years ago, a match there featured a strip with the excitement of a a damp squib.
That contest was a slog, with limited drama and endless boredom. The two-day game and that previous match are polar opposites of the scale – one is not more the standard, yet value can be ascribed to them.
Four Tests into the Ashes contest, it is the shortest games that will remain iconic in the memory.
"It's not the death of the format at all," observed a past champion. "The people who have been lucky enough to see these short time have been given some genuine drama. A unique show."
Small Victories: Building for the Future
In the lead-in to this match, the captain addressed the media like a man carrying the heavy burden on his back.
The players protected him, bringing back the positive demeanor to his persona.
Different players stepped up with crucial roles. These are incremental gains, hardly enough to guarantee long-term stability, but something to build on.
Ultimately, this Melbourne victory joins other notable performances in dead rubbers.
As the fans left into a beautiful night, the players congregated on the field to begin their own celebrations.
Celebrate the win, lads. It's well deserved.
