We won’t take the distraction of sport for granted again after a bizarre viewing experience in 2020

Appropriately, one of the last major sports stories of 2020 was the shock revelation that the Sydney Test would be played in… Sydney.

Just nine months ago this would have been like declaring the Running of the Bulls would be held in Pamplona or Wimbledon would be played on grass.

Yet, after a period of complete deprivation and then frantic reorganisation and redistribution, it is safe to say we will not take sport for granted for some time.

For many of us, organised sport is not merely a welcome distraction from life’s often more mundane realities, it is as soothing and reliable as the changing of the seasons.

Test cricket, the Australian Open tennis, the start of the various football seasons, the brief flirtation with horse racing…