Displayed inside a showcase on the upper level of the Melbourne Cricket Ground is housed a electric pink suit donned by the pop star. His performance in front of a hundred thousand fans was hailed as a success.
Perhaps you don't enjoy his music. Perhaps you believe he is the finest offering to music in history. Or you could adopt a middle ground, conceding that some songs are fantastic while others are terrible.
The central idea is that enjoyment can manifest in countless ways. You like what you like. There is no one way to create art or even five-day cricket.
The Peerless Spectrum of Test Cricket
The traditional format boasts incomparable variety. One struggles to think of another sport where the playing is so dictated by the environment.
The climate, the session, the cricket ball – the list is endless. Most important is the wicket.
If the long game is an artistic pursuit, the wicket is the canvas on which the players craft their legacy.
A Test of Cubism: The Melbourne Spectacle
The Boxing Day fixture between Australia and England was the game deconstructed, the great game dismantled and stuck back together in abstract form.
Let's be clear, this isn't a endorsement of the surface which yielded a victory and the second two-day Test of the contest.
Allowing excessive grass on the surface, leading to a cascade of wickets tumbling in less than a brief period, is not a balanced duel between bat and ball.
A Diverse Legacy: The Essence of Test Cricket
But any notion this was a diminished spectacle, one that should be marked with an asterisk as inauthentic, is incorrect.
The format is a varied portfolio, over two thousand matches and ongoing. Sometimes, as witnessed recently, the cricket ball does all sorts for the pace bowlers. Other times, it turns square on a dust bowl. At other venues, the pitch is flat as a pancake, other times it spits like a cobra.
The thrillers are all the more thrilling because of the time committed in other matches.
Problem Solving: The True Test
Specific conditions are tolerated more freely than others.
The debate in Melbourne was that the contest was tipped too far towards the bowlers. That the best players were hindered from playing their natural game.
Test cricket is about finding solutions – reading the conditions and responding appropriately. The two highest individual innings were made by world-class players. One line-up made more mistakes than the other, and thus ended up second best.
Sheer Celebration: The Supporters' View
Try telling the fans who have endured years of defeat that this wasn't compelling.
In a corner of the MCG, thousands made noise and created an atmosphere, generating a carnival vibe in a heartland of Australian cricket.
There was belief as the attack surged, advantage when batters scored quickly, and rapturous celebration when the result was achieved.
Contrasting Examples: The Spectrum of Test Matches
The Melbourne has form with controversial surfaces. Eight years ago, a Test there featured a strip with the character of a a non-event.
That contest was a slog, with limited drama and endless boredom. The latest encounter and that drawn affair are diametrically opposed points of the scale – both are not ideal, yet significance can be attached to both.
At this stage into the ongoing battle, it is the shortest games that will live longest in the history books.
"It's not the demise of the long game at all," observed a veteran. "Fans who have been lucky enough to see these short time have been treated to some fantastic sport. Different entertainment."
Small Victories: Building for the Future
In the preparation to this match, the captain talked like a man carrying the weight of the world on his back.
The team responded for him, restoring the joy to his countenance.
Different players performed with key contributions. These are baby steps, not nearly enough to guarantee long-term futures, but a starting point to build on.
In the end, this Melbourne victory is added to other historic performances in similar circumstances.
As the fans slipped away into a beautiful night, the squad assembled on the field to start their own celebrations.
Enjoy the drink, men. It's well deserved.
