Within a glass case on the upper level of the MCG is housed a electric pink outfit worn by the pop star. His show in front of a hundred thousand attendees was hailed as a triumph.
You might not enjoy the performer. You might think he is the ultimate present to music in history. You might take a balanced view, admitting that some tracks are excellent while others are terrible.
The point being is that entertainment can take many forms. Preferences differ. There is no one way to produce art or even five-day cricket.
The Unrivalled Depth of The Long Game
The traditional format boasts peerless complexity. It's difficult to think of another sport where the outcome is so reliant upon external factors.
The weather, the session, the cricket ball – the variables are numerous. Crucially is the playing surface.
If the long game is a form of art, the wicket is the canvas on which the cricketers craft their legacy.
A Test of Cubism: The Fourth Test
The Boxing Day fixture between Australia and England was the game deconstructed, the established format broken apart and stuck back together in abstract form.
This is not a justification of the wicket which produced a win and the second two-day Test of the contest.
Allowing excessive grass on the surface, leading to 36 wickets falling in less than six sessions, is not a balanced duel between bat and ball.
A Rich Tapestry: The Essence of Test Cricket
But any suggestion this was a diminished spectacle, one that should be qualified as inauthentic, is mistaken.
The long game is a varied portfolio, 2,615 parts and counting. Sometimes, like in Melbourne, the ball does all sorts for the pace bowlers. Other times, it turns square on a dry surface. Sometimes, the pitch is unresponsive, other times it spits like a cobra.
The close matches are even more exciting owing to the time devoted in other matches.
Adaptation: The Real Challenge
Specific conditions are accepted more readily than others.
The contention in during the match was that the contest was weighted unfairly towards the bowlers. That the top batters were prevented from demonstrating their skill.
The format is about adapting to challenges – assessing the wicket and adapting appropriately. The best individual scores were made by acknowledged players. One side committed more errors than the other, and thus lost.
Pure Elation: For Those Who Waited
Go and inform the devotees who have endured years of defeat that this lacked spectacle.
Among the crowd of the stadium, a sea of people celebrated and chanted, producing a party atmosphere in a bastion of sport.
There was hope as the bowlers excelled, momentum when the top order scored quickly, and rapturous celebration when the win was secured.
Extreme Ends: The Spectrum of Test Matches
The MCG has form with pitch problems. In the past, a game there featured a strip with all the life of a a non-event.
That match was a marathon, with few wickets and interminable tedium. The latest encounter and that drawn affair are diametrically opposed points of the spectrum – neither ideal, yet value can be ascribed to both.
Deep into the series into the current series, it is the shortest games that will live longest in the memory.
"This isn't the end of Test cricket at all," said a past champion. "The people who have been fortunate to see these two days have been experienced some real entertainment. Different entertainment."
Small Victories: A Glimmer of Hope
In the lead-in to this match, the skipper spoke like a man carrying the enormous pressure on his back.
The squad protected him, restoring the joy to his countenance.
New faces performed with crucial roles. These are incremental gains, hardly enough to guarantee long-term stability, but a starting point to build on.
At the very least, this MCG win is added to other memorable performances in dead rubbers.
As the fans left into a glorious Melbourne evening, the players congregated on the outfield to begin their own festivities.
Enjoy the drink, boys. It's well deserved.
