Displayed inside a showcase on the third floor of the iconic Melbourne stadium is housed a electric pink suit worn by the entertainer. The performance in front of 100,024 spectators was seen as a success.
It's possible you enjoy Robbie Williams. Perhaps you believe he is the greatest gift to music in history. Or you could adopt a balanced view, conceding that some tracks are excellent while others are terrible.
The key argument is that entertainment can manifest in countless ways. Preferences differ. There is no one way to create art or even Test cricket.
The Incomparable Variety of Test Cricket
Test cricket boasts incomparable variety. It's difficult to think of another sport where the contest is so dictated by conditions.
The elements, the hour of play, the cricket ball – the list is endless. Most important is the playing surface.
If the format is art, the strip is the blank slate on which the athletes create their art.
A Test of Cubism: The MCG Match
The recent Melbourne match between the two sides was the game deconstructed, the traditional sport taken to pieces and stuck back together in an unusual manner.
This is not a defence of the pitch which yielded a win and the another sub-three-day finish of the contest.
Allowing a thick layer on the surface, causing 36 wickets tumbling in less than six sessions, is not an even battle between bat and ball.
A Diverse Legacy: The Nature of Test Cricket
But any notion this was a lesser event, one that should be footnoted as illegitimate, is incorrect.
Test cricket is a varied portfolio, 2,615 parts and ongoing. At times, like in Melbourne, the ball behaves unpredictably for the pace bowlers. In contrast, it turns square on a spinning track. At other venues, the pitch is unresponsive, other times it spits like a cobra.
The exciting finishes are all the more thrilling because of the patience made elsewhere.
Adjustment: The Real Challenge
Some factors are embraced more easily than others.
The contention in at the MCG was that the balance was skewed excessively towards the bowlers. That the top batters were unable from demonstrating their skill.
The format is about finding solutions – reading the situation and adjusting appropriately. The two highest individual scores were made by recognized batters. One team was less disciplined than the other, and thus lost.
Pure Elation: For Those Who Waited
Attempt to convince the devotees who have suffered years of defeat that this wasn't compelling.
Among the crowd of the ground, a sea of people waved their flags and created an atmosphere, generating a party atmosphere in a bastion of Australian cricket.
There was belief as the fielding side dominated, momentum when the top order scored quickly, and unconditional love when the result was achieved.
Extreme Ends: The Spectrum of Test Matches
The Melbourne has previous experience with pitch problems. Previously, a Test there featured a wicket with the excitement of a a damp squib.
That fixture was a marathon, with limited drama and slow play. The two-day game and that drawn affair are extreme ends of the scale – both are not ideal, yet value can be ascribed to both.
Four Tests into the Ashes contest, it is the shortest games that will be most remembered in the memory.
"Far from being the end of the long game at all," observed a past champion. "Spectators who have been privileged to see these two days have been given some real entertainment. An unusual spectacle."
Baby Steps: Looking Ahead
In the build-up to this Test, the leader spoke like a man carrying the enormous pressure on his mind.
The squad responded for him, reinstating the joy to his face.
Emerging talents performed with key contributions. These are baby steps, not nearly enough to secure long-term futures, but a foundation to build on.
At the very least, this Melbourne victory takes its place among other notable performances in dead rubbers.
As the crowd left into a stunning sunset, the squad assembled on the field to commence their own festivities.
Savour the moment, lads. This victory was hard-fought.
