Displayed inside a glass case on the upper level of the Melbourne Cricket Ground sits a electric pink outfit worn by Robbie Williams. The performance in front of 100,024 fans was hailed as a major hit.
You might not appreciate the performer. Maybe you feel he is the finest offering to music known to man. You might take a balanced view, acknowledging that some tracks are fantastic while others are poor.
The central idea is that entertainment can take many forms. You like what you like. There is not a single method to produce music or even five-day cricket.
The Incomparable Variety of Test Cricket
The traditional format boasts unrivalled depth. It is hard to think of another sport where the outcome is so dependent on external factors.
The elements, the hour of play, the red ball – the factors are countless. Crucially is the playing surface.
If the long game is art, the strip is the foundation on which the cricketers create their art.
A Broken-Down Battle: The MCG Match
The fourth Ashes Test between the old rivals was the game deconstructed, the traditional sport broken apart and reconstructed in a bizarre shape.
This is not a defence of the surface which yielded a win and the second two-day Test of the Ashes battle.
Having 10mm of grass on the pitch, causing numerous dismissals tumbling in less than a brief period, is not a balanced duel between bat and ball.
A Rich Tapestry: The Essence of Test Cricket
But any suggestion this was a inferior show, one that should be qualified as inauthentic, is mistaken.
Test cricket is a diverse canvas, a long history and counting. On occasion, like in Melbourne, the ball behaves unpredictably for the seamers. Sometimes, it grips and turns on a spinning track. At other venues, the pitch is dead, other times it explodes.
The close matches are even more exciting owing to the patience devoted in other matches.
Problem Solving: The True Test
Specific conditions are accepted more freely than others.
The debate in Melbourne was that the balance was weighted unfairly towards the bowlers. That the skilled individuals were unable from showcasing their talents.
The format is about adapting to challenges – interpreting the conditions and adapting accordingly. The top two individual scores were made by recognized stars. One side made more mistakes than the other, and thus lost.
Pure Elation: The Supporters' View
Try telling the fans who have suffered 18 winless matches that this wasn't compelling.
In a corner of the ground, countless fans celebrated and sang their songs, producing a festive mood in a bastion of sport.
There was optimism as the bowlers excelled, advantage when players scored quickly, and rapturous celebration when the win was secured.
Extreme Ends: The Range of Test Matches
The Melbourne has a history with controversial surfaces. In the past, a match there featured a strip with the character of a pulled Christmas cracker.
That match was a grind, with minimal action and slow play. The two-day game and that slow Test are diametrically opposed points of the range – both are not the standard, yet significance can be attached to each.
Four Tests into the Ashes contest, it is the shortest games that will be most remembered in the history books.
"This isn't the death of Test cricket at all," said a former player. "The people who have been privileged to see these two days have been experienced some fantastic sport. An unusual spectacle."
Signs of Progress: Building for the Future
In the lead-in to this match, the captain talked like a man carrying the enormous pressure on his back.
The team responded for him, reinstating the joy to his face.
Emerging talents delivered with vital performances. These are small positives, hardly enough to guarantee long-term futures, but something to use as a platform.
At the very least, this Melbourne victory takes its place among other memorable performances in meaningless games.
As the supporters departed into a beautiful night, the squad assembled on the turf to begin their own festivities.
Savour the moment, men. You've earned this one.
