In a display cabinet on the elevated floor of the Melbourne Cricket Ground rests a vibrant pink outfit performed in by the pop star. The concert in front of 100,024 spectators was considered a major hit.
It's possible you appreciate his music. You might think he is the finest offering to music the world has ever seen. You might take a middle ground, conceding that some tracks are belting while others are poor.
The key argument is that amusement can be delivered diversely. Preferences differ. There is not a single method to create music or even the longest format.
The Peerless Spectrum of Test Cricket
The five-day game boasts peerless complexity. One struggles to think of another sport where the playing is so dependent on the environment.
The weather, the session, the 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 players create their art.
A Broken-Down Battle: The Fourth Test
The Boxing Day fixture between the old rivals was Test cricket cubism, the traditional sport broken apart and reconstructed in a bizarre shape.
It must be stated this is not a endorsement of the surface which produced a victory and the another short match of the contest.
Having 10mm of grass on the pitch, causing a cascade of wickets falling in less than two days, is not a balanced duel between offense and defense.
A Rich Tapestry: The Nature of Test Cricket
But any idea this was a diminished spectacle, one that should be footnoted as illegitimate, is mistaken.
The long game is a rich tapestry, over two thousand matches and counting. Sometimes, like in Melbourne, the ball does all sorts for the pace bowlers. Sometimes, it turns square on a dry surface. At other venues, the pitch is flat as a pancake, other times it bounces unevenly.
The close matches are all the more thrilling owing to the patience made during quieter periods.
Adaptation: The Real Challenge
Specific conditions are embraced more readily than others.
The argument in at the MCG was that the equilibrium was skewed excessively towards the fielding side. That the skilled individuals were hindered from playing their natural game.
This level of cricket is about adapting to challenges – reading the conditions and adapting accordingly. The best individual innings were made by world-class batters. One side committed more errors than the other, and thus ended up second best.
Pure Elation: For Those Who Waited
Attempt to convince the fans who have endured a long drought that this wasn't compelling.
In a corner of the MCG, a sea of people made noise and sang their songs, generating a party atmosphere in a bastion of national pride.
There was hope as the bowlers excelled, momentum when the top order responded, and rapturous celebration when the win was achieved.
Extreme Ends: The Range of Test Matches
The venue has form with difficult wickets. In the past, a Test there featured a strip with the excitement of a a damp squib.
That fixture was a slog, with few wickets and interminable tedium. The latest encounter and that slow Test are polar opposites of the range – one is not more perfect, yet significance can be attached to both.
Four Tests into the current series, it is the two-day matches that will be most remembered in the history books.
"It's not the end of the format at all," observed a former player. "Spectators who have been lucky enough to see these two days have been given some real entertainment. A unique show."
Small Victories: Building for the Future
In the lead-in to this Test, the skipper spoke like a man carrying the weight of the world on his mind.
The players delivered for him, bringing back the smile to his persona.
Different players stepped up with crucial roles. These are incremental gains, hardly enough to guarantee long-term success, but a foundation to use as a platform.
At the very least, this Melbourne victory is added to other notable performances in meaningless games.
As the supporters left into a glorious Melbourne evening, the squad assembled on the turf to commence their own celebrations.
Enjoy the drink, lads. This victory was hard-fought.
