Displayed inside a display cabinet on the upper level of the Melbourne Cricket Ground sits a electric pink outfit donned by the pop star. The show in front of a hundred thousand fans was hailed as a triumph.
You might not like the performer. Maybe you feel he is the ultimate present to music known to man. Or you could adopt a reasonable stance, admitting that some hits are belting while others are awful.
The key argument is that amusement can take many forms. You like what you like. There is no universal formula to craft literature or even five-day cricket.
The Peerless Spectrum of The Long Game
The traditional format boasts unrivalled depth. One struggles to think of another sport where the contest is so dictated by conditions.
The weather, the session, the ball – the variables are numerous. Crucially is the wicket.
If the long game is art, the strip is the canvas on which the cricketers create their art.
An Abstract Contest: The Melbourne Spectacle
The Boxing Day fixture between the two sides was the game deconstructed, the established format dismantled and reassembled in a bizarre shape.
This is not a endorsement of the wicket which resulted in a triumph and the another sub-three-day finish of the contest.
Allowing excessive grass on the wicket, leading to a cascade of wickets being taken in less than a brief period, is not an even battle between bat and ball.
A Diverse Legacy: The Essence of Test Cricket
But any idea this was a diminished spectacle, one that should be footnoted as illegitimate, is wide of the mark.
The format is a varied portfolio, 2,615 parts and still growing. Sometimes, as seen at the MCG, the ball moves excessively for the seamers. In contrast, it grips and turns on a spinning track. At other venues, the pitch is unresponsive, other times it explodes.
The exciting finishes are all the more thrilling because of the patience made in other matches.
Adjustment: The True Test
Some factors are accepted more easily than others.
The argument in at the MCG was that the contest was weighted unfairly towards the attack. That the best players were hindered from playing their natural game.
This level of cricket is about problem solving – assessing the conditions and adjusting accordingly. The best individual contributions were made by acknowledged batters. One line-up committed more errors than the other, and thus ended up second best.
Sheer Celebration: The Fan Perspective
Try telling the devotees who have endured a long drought that this lacked spectacle.
Among the crowd of the ground, countless fans celebrated and chanted, producing a festive mood in a heartland of national pride.
There was belief as the fielding side surged, momentum when players responded, and unconditional love when the victory was secured.
Extreme Ends: The Range of Test Matches
The venue has form with difficult wickets. Eight years ago, a Test there featured a wicket with the excitement of a pulled Christmas cracker.
That contest was a grind, with limited drama and interminable tedium. The latest encounter and that slow Test are polar opposites of the range – both are not ideal, yet value can be ascribed to both.
Four Tests into the current series, it is the two-day matches that will remain iconic in the collective consciousness.
"Far from being the death of Test cricket at all," said a past champion. "Fans who have been lucky enough to see these short time have been treated to some real entertainment. An unusual spectacle."
Baby Steps: A Glimmer of Hope
In the lead-in to this Test, the captain spoke like a man carrying the heavy burden on his mind.
The squad responded for him, bringing back the positive demeanor to his persona.
New faces stepped up with crucial roles. These are incremental gains, not nearly enough to guarantee long-term stability, but a foundation to build on.
In the end, this Melbourne victory is added to other historic performances in meaningless games.
As the supporters left into a stunning sunset, the team gathered on the turf to commence their own celebrations.
Enjoy the drink, boys. You've earned this one.
