In a showcase on the third floor of the iconic Melbourne stadium sits a neon pink ensemble performed in by the pop star. The performance in front of a massive crowd of spectators was considered 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, conceding that some songs are excellent while others are awful.
The central idea is that enjoyment can manifest in countless ways. You like what you like. There is no one way to craft music or even the longest format.
The Incomparable Variety of Test Cricket
Test cricket boasts incomparable variety. It's difficult to think of another sport where the playing is so dependent on the environment.
The elements, the session, the ball – the list is endless. Crucially is the playing surface.
If Test cricket is art, the wicket is the canvas on which the cricketers create their art.
An Abstract Contest: The MCG Match
The recent Melbourne match between the two sides was Test cricket cubism, the established format dismantled and reconstructed in an unusual manner.
This is not a defence of the surface which produced a win and the another sub-three-day finish of the contest.
Leaving 10mm of grass on the wicket, causing 36 wickets tumbling in less than two days, is not an even battle between batter and bowler.
A Diverse Legacy: The Core of Test Cricket
But any idea this was a inferior show, one that should be footnoted as inauthentic, is wide of the mark.
The format is a rich tapestry, over two thousand matches and still growing. Sometimes, as seen at the MCG, the cricket ball behaves unpredictably for the pace bowlers. In contrast, it grips and turns on a dry surface. Sometimes, the pitch is flat as a pancake, other times it explodes.
The thrillers are all the more thrilling owing to the patience devoted elsewhere.
Problem Solving: The Core Skill
Certain variables are embraced more easily than others.
The contention in at the MCG was that the contest was weighted unfairly towards the attack. That the top batters were hindered from showcasing their talents.
This level of cricket is about problem solving – assessing the conditions and adjusting appropriately. The two highest individual contributions were made by acknowledged players. One line-up was less disciplined than the other, and thus were defeated.
Pure Elation: The Fan Perspective
Go and inform the devotees who have experienced 18 winless matches that this was not entertaining.
In one section of the stadium, a sea of people waved their flags and sang their songs, generating a festive mood in a stronghold of national pride.
There was optimism as the attack excelled, advantage when the top order scored quickly, and pure joy when the result was secured.
Contrasting Examples: The Variety of Test Matches
The Melbourne has form with controversial surfaces. Eight years ago, a Test there featured a pitch with the excitement of a a non-event.
That fixture was a grind, with limited drama and endless boredom. The two-day game and that previous match are polar opposites of the scale – neither the standard, yet significance can be ascribed to both.
Four Tests into the ongoing battle, it is the shortest games that will live longest in the history books.
"It's not the end of the long game at all," commented a past champion. "The people who have been privileged to see these 48 hours have been given some real entertainment. Different entertainment."
Small Victories: Building for the Future
In the lead-in to this Test, the captain talked like a man carrying the weight of the world on his back.
The team protected him, reinstating the smile to his countenance.
Different players stepped up with vital performances. These are small positives, not nearly enough to secure long-term stability, but a starting point to develop from.
In the end, this MCG win is added to other historic performances in meaningless games.
As the fans departed into a beautiful night, the players assembled on the outfield to commence their own festivities.
Enjoy the drink, men. You've earned this one.
