I'm of course well aware that there are many in the world find it staggering alone that a game of cricket - of anything in fact - can take five days to complete. It is therefore even more galling to people that at the end of that process you can still not even have a result! I recognise that this may seem a little stagnant, stale or futile even. But I must reassure those worried about the wasted energy, time and money invested in cricket, despite the draw the first Ashes test in Brisbane has been one of the best examples of why test cricket surpasses anything for sporting drama and excitement and was well worth it regardless. The drama and significance of the long weekend entirely negated any apparent anti-climax a draw might be accused of.
In answer to someone asking after my health this past weekend, I did in fact admit that my mood and spirits were entirely dictated by the cricket, and at that particular moment this was not positive. Its hard to describe the horribly and deeply sick feeling I and millions of others experienced when the English Captain Andrew Strauss was out on his third ball (especially given the ghosts of our last start here); or the disbelief and horror I felt as Peter Siddle savaged through the English batting middle order in one over and in consecutive balls, taking a historic rare-as-hen's-teeth hat trick (only the third in more than a century of Ashes cricket). These miserable events were happening to me almost as much as they were to the players involved. (The degree to which your own interests are at stake when you are a pom living in Australia cannot be overstated. That's not to say that it's any more important to a pom in Australia than someone living in Fulham. It isn't. But as a collective we are considerably more exposed. Social media has meant this at times light hearted banter, and at other times verbal combat, is all pervasive of course - as Ashley Kerekes (aka @theashes) can attest.)
The oscillating emotions experienced by a test cricket student (and with a myriad of statistics and history to keep across, to consume an ashes test match is more like study than spectating) covers an entire spectrum from end to end. Especially when it involves the often unpredictable English sporting temperament. Shortly before Peter Siddle took three wickets in consecutive balls - on his birthday no less - I had been talking to my father online. He had just risen, living in the northern hemisphere, and asked how the cricket had gone on the first day. At that point it was looking relatively comfortable despite Strauss' early and fruitless exit. "But" I said, "it just depends on how the middle order do." Not ten minutes later Siddle scalped his three hat trick victims, Pietersen, Prior and Broad -they *were* that middle order! That is how quickly test cricket can turn.
England were doomed twice during the course of the match and came back twice, with bat and ball, to steal a draw from defeat's jaw. Australia too were in turn dominant and dictated to during separate phases of the turbulent five day battle. Hussey and Haddin's 307 partnership was truly awesome in it's perseverance and determination - particularly amid what Haddin describes as the "toughest and highest quality test bowling you’re going to get". Yet Cooks's historic 235 run contribution to the final 517/1 2nd innings English total was equally inspiring and even miraculous - the highest total ever without losing a second wicket. (After so many appalling English batting collapses, its also impossible to decribe how much delight those figures brought.)
The match saw the establishment of two new National heroes - Cook and Siddle - yet both were not even certain to make the team only a month before the test. While it saw the dramatic debut of one new player, the phlegmatic Steve Finn who got a six-for (six wickets from his bowling), it probably also saw the death nail in Mitchell johnson's career who's bowling endeavors cost 170 runs for no wicket, fielding saw a dropped catch and batting saw a 19-ball duck.
Finally anyone familiar with the history of The Gabba, (affectionately known in Australia as the Gabbatoir) and its usually fatal impact on the ambitions of so many visiting teams cannot possibly deny the importance of a draw there. But anyway, what is so exciting is that whatever happened in Brisbane, anything can happen. Despite the most impressive English batting performance since 1924, and the highest Gabba Total since Bradman; Sir Ian Botham's warning about Australian sporting virility still rings true and should deter any complacency - "you can pick eleven random blokes off an Aussie beach and still expect a decent game from them".