Within a display cabinet on the elevated floor of the iconic Melbourne stadium sits a neon pink ensemble donned by Robbie Williams. His concert in front of a hundred thousand fans was hailed as a success.
You might not like his music. Perhaps you believe he is the finest offering to music known to man. You might take a balanced view, admitting that some tracks are belting while others are terrible.
The point being is that enjoyment can manifest in countless ways. Tastes vary. There is no one way to produce music or even five-day cricket.
The Peerless Spectrum of The Long Game
Test cricket boasts peerless complexity. One struggles to think of another sport where the playing is so dependent on external factors.
The climate, the time of day, the red ball – the factors are countless. Above all is the playing surface.
If the long game is art, the strip is the canvas on which the players paint their masterpiece.
An Abstract Contest: The MCG Match
The fourth Ashes Test between the old rivals was Test cricket cubism, the great game broken apart and reassembled in an unusual manner.
Let's be clear, this isn't a justification of the pitch which resulted in a victory and the second two-day Test of the contest.
Allowing a thick layer on the wicket, leading to 36 wickets tumbling in less than two days, is not a balanced duel between offense and defense.
A Rich Tapestry: The Core of Test Cricket
But any idea this was a inferior show, one that should be marked with an asterisk as inauthentic, is mistaken.
Test cricket is a varied portfolio, 2,615 parts and counting. At times, as witnessed recently, the cricket ball behaves unpredictably for the seamers. In contrast, it grips and turns on a spinning track. Sometimes, the pitch is dead, other times it explodes.
The exciting finishes are even more exciting owing to the time committed in other matches.
Adjustment: The Real Challenge
Specific conditions are tolerated more readily than others.
The argument in at the MCG was that the equilibrium was tipped too far towards the fielding side. That the skilled individuals were unable from playing their natural game.
This level of cricket is about finding solutions – reading the wicket and adapting accordingly. The best individual scores were made by recognized stars. One team committed more errors than the other, and thus were defeated.
Pure Elation: The Fan Perspective
Go and inform the devotees who have experienced a long drought that this lacked spectacle.
Among the crowd of the MCG, thousands made noise and sang their songs, generating a party atmosphere in a bastion of Australian cricket.
There was hope as the fielding side excelled, impetus when players fought back, and rapturous celebration when the result was achieved.
Contrasting Examples: The Spectrum of Test Matches
The Melbourne has previous experience with pitch problems. Eight years ago, a game there featured a wicket with all the life of a pulled Christmas cracker.
That match was a marathon, with few wickets and slow play. This recent match and that slow Test are diametrically opposed points of the spectrum – neither perfect, yet historical weight can be attached to each.
Four Tests into the current series, it is the shortest games that will remain iconic in the history books.
"Far from being the death of the format at all," observed a veteran. "Fans who have been lucky enough to see these 48 hours have been given some fantastic sport. Different entertainment."
Signs of Progress: Building for the Future
In the lead-in to this Test, the captain addressed the media like a man carrying the enormous pressure on his mind.
The team delivered for him, bringing back the positive demeanor to his face.
New faces stepped up with key contributions. These are small positives, certainly not enough to guarantee long-term success, but a foundation to use as a platform.
Ultimately, this MCG win is added to other notable performances in similar circumstances.
As the crowd slipped away into a stunning sunset, the players gathered on the outfield to begin their own festivities.
Savour the moment, boys. This victory was hard-fought.
