In a glass case on the elevated floor of the Melbourne Cricket Ground is housed a electric pink outfit worn by the entertainer. His show in front of a massive crowd of fans was seen as a triumph.
Perhaps you don't enjoy the performer. You might think he is the ultimate present to music the world has ever seen. Or you could adopt a middle ground, admitting that some songs are excellent while others are terrible.
The central idea is that amusement can take many forms. You like what you like. There is no universal formula to craft music or even Test cricket.
The Unrivalled Depth of The Test Format
The five-day game boasts peerless complexity. One struggles to think of another sport where the contest is so reliant upon external factors.
The climate, the hour of play, the cricket ball – the factors are countless. Most important is the wicket.
If Test cricket is art, the strip is the blank slate on which the cricketers craft their legacy.
A Test of Cubism: The MCG Match
The fourth Ashes Test between Australia and England was an abstract version of cricket, the great game broken apart and reassembled in abstract form.
Let's be clear, this isn't a defence of the surface which yielded a victory and the second two-day Test of the contest.
Allowing 10mm of grass on the wicket, leading to a cascade of wickets being taken in less than a brief period, is not a balanced duel between offense and defense.
A Varied History: The Nature of Test Cricket
But any suggestion this was a lesser event, one that should be footnoted as illegitimate, is mistaken.
Test cricket is a rich tapestry, 2,615 parts and ongoing. Sometimes, as witnessed recently, the cricket ball does all sorts for the seamers. Other times, it spins sharply on a spinning track. Sometimes, the pitch is dead, other times it spits like a cobra.
The close matches are particularly captivating owing to the time committed elsewhere.
Problem Solving: The True Test
Specific conditions are tolerated more easily than others.
The debate in during the match was that the equilibrium was weighted unfairly towards the fielding side. That the best players were hindered from showcasing their talents.
This level of cricket is about finding solutions – reading the situation and responding appropriately. The two highest individual scores were made by world-class players. One side made more mistakes than the other, and thus lost.
Sheer Celebration: The Supporters' View
Attempt to convince the devotees who have endured a long drought that this was not entertaining.
Among the crowd of the stadium, countless fans made noise and chanted, fostering a party atmosphere in a stronghold of national pride.
There was belief as the attack surged, impetus when batters responded, and rapturous celebration when the result was confirmed.
Extreme Ends: The Range of Test Matches
The venue has form with difficult wickets. Previously, a Test there featured a wicket with all the life of a a damp squib.
That contest was a marathon, with few wickets and slow play. This recent match and that previous match are polar opposites of the scale – both are not ideal, yet significance can be ascribed to each.
Four Tests into the current series, it is the two-day matches that will live longest in the memory.
"Far from being the end of the format at all," observed a veteran. "Fans who have been fortunate to see these 48 hours have been given some fantastic sport. 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 shoulders.
The players delivered for him, restoring the smile to his persona.
New faces performed with vital performances. These are small positives, not nearly enough to guarantee long-term futures, but a foundation to use as a platform.
In the end, this MCG win joins other historic performances in dead rubbers.
As the crowd slipped away into a stunning sunset, the players congregated on the turf to commence their own celebrations.
Celebrate the win, boys. This victory was hard-fought.
