Displayed inside a showcase on the third floor of the MCG is housed a electric pink outfit worn by Robbie Williams. The show in front of a hundred thousand spectators was hailed as a success.
You might not appreciate the performer. Perhaps you believe he is the ultimate present to music known to man. You might take a balanced view, acknowledging that some hits are belting while others are awful.
The central idea is that entertainment can be delivered diversely. You like what you like. There is no one way to craft music or even five-day cricket.
The Incomparable Variety of The Test Format
The traditional format boasts peerless complexity. It's difficult to think of another sport where the outcome is so dictated by external factors.
The climate, the session, the ball – the factors are countless. Above all is the pitch.
If Test cricket is art, the wicket is the canvas on which the players paint their masterpiece.
A Broken-Down Battle: The MCG Match
The Boxing Day fixture between Australia and England was Test cricket cubism, the established format broken apart and stuck back together in abstract form.
Let's be clear, this isn't a justification of the wicket which resulted in a triumph and the another sub-three-day finish of the series.
Leaving excessive grass on the surface, leading to 36 wickets falling in less than two days, is not a fair contest between offense and defense.
A Varied History: The Essence of Test Cricket
But any suggestion this was a inferior show, one that should be marked with an asterisk as inauthentic, is wide of the mark.
The long game is a diverse canvas, over two thousand matches and ongoing. At times, as witnessed recently, the ball does all sorts for the seamers. Sometimes, it turns square on a dust bowl. Sometimes, the pitch is flat as a pancake, other times it bounces unevenly.
The thrillers are even more exciting because of the investment devoted in other matches.
Adjustment: The True Test
Specific conditions are accepted more easily than others.
The contention in during the match was that the equilibrium was tipped too far towards the fielding side. That the top batters were unable from showcasing their talents.
The format is about finding solutions – reading the wicket and adapting effectively. The top two individual scores were made by acknowledged players. One side made more mistakes than the other, and thus ended up second best.
Unbridled Joy: The Fan Perspective
Try telling the devotees who have endured years of defeat that this lacked spectacle.
Among the crowd of the stadium, thousands celebrated and chanted, producing a festive mood in a stronghold of national pride.
There was hope as the attack surged, advantage when the top order responded, and rapturous celebration when the result was confirmed.
Polar Opposites: The Spectrum of Test Matches
The Melbourne has previous experience with controversial surfaces. Eight years ago, a game there featured a strip with the character of a a non-event.
That match was a marathon, with limited drama and slow play. The latest encounter and that drawn affair are extreme ends of the spectrum – both are not perfect, yet significance can be attached to each.
Deep into the series into the current series, it is the two-day matches that will live longest in the memory.
"It's not the demise of the long game at all," commented a past champion. "Spectators who have been privileged to see these 48 hours have been treated to some fantastic sport. Different entertainment."
Baby Steps: Looking Ahead
In the lead-in to this Test, the captain addressed the media like a man carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
The players delivered for him, restoring the smile to his face.
Different players delivered with crucial roles. These are baby steps, not nearly enough to secure long-term success, but something to use as a platform.
At the very least, this MCG win joins other historic performances in similar circumstances.
As the crowd slipped away into a stunning sunset, the players assembled on the field to begin their own festivities.
Enjoy the drink, boys. It's well deserved.