Ashes fourth Test at the MCG is alive with drama, even if the series is won

Just because the last two Tests of the Ashes series are again dead does not mean that they are not brimming with life, gravitas and meaning. No Ashes Test can be fully, incontrovertibly and certifiably dead.

For a start, this time, these Tests are Australia’s common cause. The most frequent adjective heard about the country in the sombre aftermath of the Bondi Beach massacre is “divided”. Cricket can’t be a panacea, but it can and does bring people together in a purpose outside and greater than themselves. It’s a trivial purpose in the scheme of things, but shared nonetheless. Who knows, it might even drown out screeching politicians?

In an Ashes series, that sense of fraternity can be extended to the Barmy Army. They’re as mad as only Englishmen in the midday sun can be, but let’s admit it: they’re admirably mad. Let’s also admit that the state of the series makes them somehow less grating. They can sing until they’re hoarse, but Australia still will hold the Ashes when they go home.

Boxing Day at the cricket is a tradition, which makes it significant outside the scoreline in any one series. It’s a secular feast day, with all the rites. Christmas solemnities dispensed with, we gather at the MCG as if at a cathedral, greet old friends, break bread, run through a familiar service – but no less cherished for that – and the next day, spiritually renewed, half of us head off to the beach.

Have a look as they converge from all points in a (Travis) heady rush on Boxing Day morning. At the cricket on Boxing Day, and wherever it is broadcast, you can feel the nation’s pulse.

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Players will never write off Boxing Day. The series may be technically dead, but it will be plenty perky enough when, depending on who wins the toss, Brydon Carse is rearing them at Travis Head or Mitchell Starc is scything away at Zak Crawley’s feet.

Sometimes, but not often enough, the contest of the day should be left to stand for itself. Surely, we are not so dead in our souls that every occasion needs a prize for it to matter. Not everything has to fit into a bigger picture to be worth its while.

Whatever the stakes or their lack, pride in performance can never be underestimated. Shane Warne took his 700th Test wicket in a Boxing Day dead Ashes rubber. Steve Waugh made his memorable last-ball hundred in Sydney in a so-called dead Ashes Test.