In a display cabinet on the elevated floor of the MCG sits a electric pink suit performed in by the entertainer. His concert in front of a hundred thousand fans was hailed as a success.
You might not enjoy the performer. Perhaps you believe he is the finest offering to music in history. You might take a balanced view, conceding that some hits are fantastic while others are awful.
The key argument is that amusement can be delivered diversely. You like what you like. There is no one way to create literature or even five-day cricket.
The Unrivalled Depth of The Long Game
The five-day game boasts incomparable variety. One struggles to think of another sport where the contest is so dependent on external factors.
The elements, the session, the cricket ball – the list is endless. Most important is the playing surface.
If Test cricket is art, the strip is the foundation on which the players craft their legacy.
An Abstract Contest: The Melbourne Spectacle
The recent Melbourne match between the old rivals was Test cricket cubism, the great game dismantled and reconstructed in an unusual manner.
It must be stated this is not a justification of the surface which resulted in a triumph and the another sub-three-day finish of the contest.
Allowing excessive grass on the surface, causing a cascade of wickets tumbling in less than a brief period, is not a balanced duel between batter and bowler.
A Rich Tapestry: The Core of Test Cricket
But any suggestion this was a diminished spectacle, one that should be footnoted as illegitimate, is mistaken.
Test cricket is a diverse canvas, a long history and still growing. Sometimes, like in Melbourne, the ball does all sorts for the fast men. In contrast, it spins sharply on a dust bowl. At other venues, the pitch is unresponsive, other times it spits like a cobra.
The thrillers are all the more thrilling because of the time devoted elsewhere.
Problem Solving: The Core Skill
Some factors are tolerated more readily than others.
The argument in at the MCG was that the balance was weighted unfairly towards the fielding side. That the top batters were prevented from showcasing their talents.
This level of cricket is about adapting to challenges – reading the conditions and responding appropriately. The top two individual innings were made by acknowledged batters. One team made more mistakes than the other, and thus ended up second best.
Pure Elation: The Supporters' View
Go and inform the fans who have experienced a long drought that this was not entertaining.
Among the crowd of the ground, countless fans celebrated and chanted, producing a carnival vibe in a bastion of sport.
There was belief as the bowlers excelled, momentum when players responded, and unconditional love when the result was achieved.
Extreme Ends: The Variety of Test Matches
The Melbourne has form with controversial surfaces. Previously, a Test there featured a strip with all the life of a a damp squib.
That contest was a grind, with few wickets and interminable tedium. The two-day game and that drawn affair are polar opposites of the spectrum – neither perfect, yet significance can be found in them.
At this stage into the Ashes contest, it is the two-day matches that will live longest in the collective consciousness.
"Far from being the demise of the format at all," said a past champion. "Fans who have been lucky enough to see these 48 hours have been given some real entertainment. A unique show."
Signs of Progress: Building for the Future
In the preparation to this match, the captain addressed the media like a man carrying the weight of the world on his back.
The team protected him, restoring the smile to his persona.
Emerging talents performed with crucial roles. These are baby steps, hardly enough to guarantee long-term futures, but a foundation to develop from.
At the very least, this triumph takes its place among other memorable performances in dead rubbers.
As the crowd slipped away into a stunning sunset, the squad congregated on the turf to begin their own enjoyment.
Savour the moment, boys. This victory was hard-fought.
