In a showcase on the elevated floor of the Melbourne Cricket Ground rests a vibrant pink ensemble donned by Robbie Williams. The show in front of a hundred thousand attendees was hailed as a triumph.
It's possible you like his music. You might think he is the finest offering to music known to man. You might take a middle ground, acknowledging that some songs are excellent while others are poor.
The point being is that entertainment can be delivered diversely. Tastes vary. There is no universal formula to produce music or even five-day cricket.
The Peerless Spectrum of Test Cricket
Test cricket boasts incomparable variety. It is hard to think of another sport where the outcome is so dependent on the environment.
The climate, the time of day, the cricket ball – the variables are numerous. Most important is the pitch.
If Test cricket is a form of art, the strip is the canvas on which the athletes paint their masterpiece.
An Abstract Contest: The Fourth Test
The fourth Ashes Test between Australia and England was an abstract version of cricket, the traditional sport broken apart and reassembled in a bizarre shape.
This is not a justification of the surface which produced a victory and the another sub-three-day finish of the contest.
Having 10mm of grass on the pitch, causing 36 wickets tumbling in less than six sessions, is not a balanced duel between offense and defense.
A Rich Tapestry: The Nature of Test Cricket
But any idea this was a diminished spectacle, one that should be marked with an asterisk as inauthentic, is incorrect.
The format is a diverse canvas, 2,615 parts and ongoing. On occasion, as witnessed recently, the cricket ball moves excessively for the pace bowlers. In contrast, it grips and turns on a dry surface. At other venues, the pitch is dead, other times it explodes.
The thrillers are even more exciting because of the time committed in other matches.
Adaptation: The Core Skill
Some factors are embraced more easily than others.
The debate in at the MCG was that the contest was tipped too far towards the attack. That the top batters were hindered from showcasing their talents.
Test cricket is about finding solutions – interpreting the conditions and adjusting effectively. The two highest individual innings were made by world-class batters. One team made more mistakes than the other, and thus were defeated.
Unbridled Joy: For Those Who Waited
Try telling the fans who have experienced years of defeat that this lacked spectacle.
Among the crowd of the stadium, a sea of people made noise and sang their songs, fostering a festive mood in a heartland of sport.
There was belief as the attack excelled, impetus when the top order responded, and unconditional love when the result was confirmed.
Polar Opposites: The Spectrum of Test Matches
The Melbourne has previous experience with difficult wickets. In the past, a Test there featured a strip with all the life of a a non-event.
That contest was a grind, with few wickets and endless boredom. The two-day game and that previous match are extreme ends of the range – neither ideal, yet historical weight can be found in both.
Four Tests into the ongoing battle, it is the two-day matches that will be most remembered in the memory.
"This isn't the demise of Test cricket at all," commented a past champion. "The people who have been fortunate to see these 48 hours have been experienced some real entertainment. Different entertainment."
Baby Steps: A Glimmer of Hope
In the lead-in to this match, the skipper addressed the media like a man carrying the heavy burden on his shoulders.
The players delivered for him, reinstating the joy to his face.
New faces delivered with vital performances. These are incremental gains, certainly not enough to ensure long-term stability, but a starting point to build on.
At the very least, this triumph joins other historic performances in similar circumstances.
As the crowd slipped away into a glorious Melbourne evening, the team assembled on the field to begin their own festivities.
Celebrate the win, lads. It's well deserved.
