In a showcase on the upper level of the Melbourne Cricket Ground is housed a vibrant pink outfit donned by the pop star. The performance in front of 100,024 attendees was considered a major hit.
Perhaps you don't like Robbie Williams. Maybe you feel he is the finest offering to music in history. You might take a middle ground, acknowledging that some tracks are excellent while others are poor.
The key argument is that amusement can take many forms. Tastes vary. There is no one way to produce literature or even five-day cricket.
The Incomparable Variety of Test Cricket
Test cricket boasts incomparable variety. It's difficult to think of another sport where the contest is so dependent on external factors.
The climate, the hour of play, the ball – the list is endless. Crucially is the playing surface.
If Test cricket is an artistic pursuit, the wicket is the blank slate on which the athletes paint their masterpiece.
An Abstract Contest: The Melbourne Spectacle
The Boxing Day fixture between the two sides was Test cricket cubism, the traditional sport dismantled and reconstructed in an unusual manner.
This is not a defence of the surface which resulted in a triumph and the second two-day Test of the contest.
Allowing a thick layer on the surface, leading to numerous dismissals falling in less than a brief period, is not an even battle between batter and bowler.
A Varied History: The Nature of Test Cricket
But any idea this was a inferior show, one that should be footnoted as illegitimate, is incorrect.
The format is a varied portfolio, a long history and still growing. At times, as witnessed recently, the cricket ball moves excessively for the seamers. In contrast, it turns square on a dust bowl. At other venues, the pitch is flat as a pancake, other times it explodes.
The close matches are even more exciting due to the time committed during quieter periods.
Adaptation: The True Test
Certain variables are embraced more easily than others.
The contention in at the MCG was that the equilibrium was weighted unfairly towards the bowlers. That the skilled individuals were unable from playing their natural game.
This level of cricket is about finding solutions – interpreting the situation and adapting appropriately. The top two individual innings were made by recognized players. One team made more mistakes than the other, and thus were defeated.
Pure Elation: For Those Who Waited
Go and inform the supporters who have experienced a long drought that this lacked spectacle.
In one section of the MCG, countless fans made noise and chanted, producing a festive mood in a heartland of Australian cricket.
There was belief as the fielding side excelled, advantage when batters responded, and pure joy when the result was confirmed.
Contrasting Examples: The Spectrum of Test Matches
The venue has form with pitch problems. Eight years ago, a match there featured a pitch with the character of a pulled Christmas cracker.
That fixture was a grind, with few wickets and slow play. The two-day game and that drawn affair are extreme ends of the spectrum – one is not more ideal, yet value can be attached to each.
Four Tests into the Ashes contest, it is the shortest games that will remain iconic in the memory.
"Far from being the end of the long game at all," commented a past champion. "Spectators who have been lucky enough to see these two days have been treated to some real entertainment. Different entertainment."
Baby Steps: A Glimmer of Hope
In the preparation to this Test, the skipper spoke like a man carrying the heavy burden on his back.
The players delivered for him, reinstating the joy to his face.
Emerging talents stepped up with vital performances. These are incremental gains, hardly enough to guarantee long-term stability, but a starting point to use as a platform.
Ultimately, this Melbourne victory is added to other historic performances in similar circumstances.
As the supporters departed into a beautiful night, the players gathered on the outfield to start their own celebrations.
Celebrate the win, lads. It's well deserved.
