Within a showcase on the third floor of the Melbourne Cricket Ground is housed a neon pink outfit worn by the pop star. His concert in front of a hundred thousand spectators was seen as a triumph.
It's possible you enjoy his music. Maybe you feel he is the ultimate present to music known to man. Or you could adopt a middle ground, acknowledging that some tracks are fantastic while others are poor.
The key argument is that enjoyment can take many forms. Tastes vary. There is no universal formula to craft literature or even five-day cricket.
The Peerless Spectrum of Test Cricket
The five-day game boasts unrivalled depth. One struggles to think of another sport where the outcome is so reliant upon the environment.
The climate, the session, the cricket ball – the factors are countless. Above all is the pitch.
If Test cricket is an artistic pursuit, the strip is the foundation on which the athletes craft their legacy.
An Abstract Contest: The MCG Match
The fourth Ashes Test between the two sides was the game deconstructed, the great game taken to pieces and reconstructed in a bizarre shape.
Let's be clear, this isn't a justification of the wicket which resulted in a victory and the another sub-three-day finish of the contest.
Allowing excessive grass on the wicket, leading to numerous dismissals falling in less than a brief period, is not an even battle between batter and bowler.
A Diverse Legacy: The Essence of Test Cricket
But any notion this was a inferior show, one that should be footnoted as inauthentic, is wide of the mark.
The long game is a diverse canvas, over two thousand matches and still growing. On occasion, as witnessed recently, the cricket ball moves excessively for the pace bowlers. In contrast, it turns square on a dust bowl. Sometimes, the pitch is flat as a pancake, other times it bounces unevenly.
The thrillers are all the more thrilling due to the patience made during quieter periods.
Adaptation: The Core Skill
Specific conditions are tolerated more easily than others.
The contention in during the match was that the contest was weighted unfairly towards the fielding side. That the top batters were prevented from playing their natural game.
The format is about problem solving – assessing the conditions and adjusting accordingly. The top two individual scores were made by recognized batters. One team was less disciplined than the other, and thus lost.
Unbridled Joy: The Supporters' View
Attempt to convince the supporters who have experienced years of defeat that this was not entertaining.
Among the crowd of the ground, thousands celebrated and sang their songs, generating a party atmosphere in a bastion of sport.
There was belief as the bowlers surged, momentum when the top order fought back, and pure joy when the victory was secured.
Contrasting Examples: The Variety of Test Matches
The Melbourne has form with controversial surfaces. Previously, a Test there featured a pitch with all the life of a a damp squib.
That fixture was a marathon, with limited drama and endless boredom. The two-day game and that slow Test are diametrically opposed points of the spectrum – both are not the standard, yet value can be found in each.
Deep into the series into the current series, it is the quick finishes that will live longest in the memory.
"It's not the end of the format at all," commented a former player. "The people who have been privileged to see these 48 hours have been given some fantastic sport. Different entertainment."
Baby Steps: Looking Ahead
In the preparation to this match, the captain addressed the media like a man carrying the enormous pressure on his mind.
The players delivered for him, restoring the positive demeanor to his face.
New faces stepped up with key contributions. These are incremental gains, not nearly enough to ensure long-term futures, but something to build on.
In the end, this triumph is added to other memorable performances in dead rubbers.
As the fans slipped away into a beautiful night, the players gathered on the field to start their own festivities.
Enjoy the drink, lads. This victory was hard-fought.
