Within a showcase on the elevated floor of the iconic Melbourne stadium rests a electric pink suit donned by the pop star. The show in front of a hundred thousand attendees was seen as a triumph.
You might not like the performer. Perhaps you believe he is the finest offering to music the world has ever seen. Or you could adopt a balanced view, admitting that some tracks are fantastic while others are poor.
The central idea is that enjoyment can take many forms. You like what you like. There is no one way to create literature or even the longest format.
The Unrivalled Depth of Test Cricket
Test cricket boasts incomparable variety. It's difficult to think of another sport where the playing is so reliant upon conditions.
The weather, the time of day, the red ball – the list is endless. Most important is the pitch.
If the long game is art, the pitch is the blank slate on which the players paint their masterpiece.
An Abstract Contest: The Melbourne Spectacle
The fourth Ashes Test between the old rivals was an abstract version of cricket, the great game broken apart and reconstructed in a bizarre shape.
Let's be clear, this isn't a justification of the surface which yielded a victory and the second two-day Test of the series.
Allowing a thick layer on the surface, resulting in a cascade of wickets being taken in less than six sessions, is not a balanced duel between batter and bowler.
A Rich Tapestry: The Nature of Test Cricket
But any suggestion this was a inferior show, one that should be footnoted as not a proper Test, is wide of the mark.
The format is a diverse canvas, a long history and ongoing. At times, like in Melbourne, the cricket ball moves excessively for the fast men. Sometimes, it grips and turns on a spinning track. At other venues, the pitch is dead, other times it explodes.
The thrillers are all the more thrilling because of the time committed during quieter periods.
Adaptation: The Real Challenge
Some factors are accepted more readily than others.
The debate in Melbourne was that the balance was tipped too far towards the attack. That the best players were prevented from demonstrating their skill.
This level of cricket is about finding solutions – assessing the situation and adjusting appropriately. The top two individual scores were made by acknowledged stars. One side committed more errors than the other, and thus were defeated.
Pure Elation: For Those Who Waited
Try telling the fans who have endured years of defeat that this wasn't compelling.
In one section of the ground, thousands waved their flags and sang their songs, fostering a festive mood in a bastion of sport.
There was belief as the fielding side dominated, impetus when batters scored quickly, and pure joy when the win was achieved.
Polar Opposites: The Range of Test Matches
The Melbourne has a history with difficult wickets. Eight years ago, a match there featured a pitch with all the life of a a non-event.
That match was a grind, with limited drama and slow play. This recent match and that drawn affair are diametrically opposed points of the spectrum – both are not ideal, yet historical weight can be attached to them.
Four Tests into the Ashes contest, it is the two-day matches that will live longest in the collective consciousness.
"It's not the end of the long game at all," observed a past champion. "Spectators who have been lucky enough to see these short time have been given some genuine drama. An unusual spectacle."
Baby Steps: A Glimmer of Hope
In the lead-in to this Test, the captain talked like a man carrying the weight of the world on his mind.
The players protected him, restoring the joy to his persona.
Emerging talents performed with key contributions. These are small positives, not nearly enough to secure long-term success, but a foundation to develop from.
In the end, this triumph joins other historic performances in similar circumstances.
As the crowd departed into a glorious Melbourne evening, the team gathered on the field to begin their own enjoyment.
Savour the moment, men. This victory was hard-fought.
