🔗 Share this article

The Journey of a Cult tends to be characterized by clear stages.

1. The Grand Vision

A dominant personality or figureheads present an innovative concept that promises a panacea for alienated and vulnerable people.

Thus we find ourselves. They’re getting ready to challenge the establishment overseas. Tensions are rising. Conflict emerges from within. A lone figure, exposed, nervous, the slogan POSITIVE INTENT written on his body in chicken blood, has stumbled from the field and is being led away with discretion for a temporary assignment elsewhere.

Do you ever miss the beginning, when the world was still young? The era of early Bazball, of uninhibited aggression.

2. Initial Adoration

Team architects offer a fresh beginning, hope for a future, camaraderie, salvation among a group united in belief in the method.

How did it feel back then? Players celebrating basking in glory. Ink. Forearms. Jawlines. Confident masculinity. Oh sure, England’s players will claim they don’t use the label, ironically as it’s denied, what exactly did I just watch?

But we know what it is. It’s Harry Brook playing a shot so outrageous it’s beyond belief. It’s the adrenaline of the leader in ultimate mode, a look that says: pensive Nordic god, beard made of wood, hair woven from beaver hide, genuinely raw you wouldn’t be surprised to notice and see him playing on the ground shirtless and cradling a wild salmon.

It’s the batsman still being allowed speaking publicly, appearing as a joyful figure formally attired, uttering phrases such as we’re challenging norms. And yes, the energy, initially, was entirely positive.

3. A New Life

Development stage. Unity enforced by rote learning of mantras. These ideas can appear contradictory to prove commitment.

Am I alone? The criticism, the anger, the disappointment after the first Ashes Test defeat seems too strong, unwarranted. The performance was poor on the field, as they often do in Australia. They were savaged in the field during a brief period when tactics failed, outplayed by the batsman playing aggressively but smarter, adjusting to the pitch, a performer excelling with a kind of light around him.

Currently, we see the criticism, the anger, the perception of the team as a kind of abomination. The feeling seems to be that losing isn’t enough, they need to lose righteously, to be scoured, destroyed, overwhelmed by the vengeful purity of the pace attack, the conventional tactics of the veteran, out there celebrating achievements with a bashful smile like he’s just been given a pleasant gift. What will this do to them?

4. The Backlash Phase

Problems arise due to setbacks. However, faults are ignored. It turns to hostility externally.

The fact remains, half a week out the upcoming game, we are at a delicious point of tension in the journey of this thing. They might succeed in Brisbane with bold tactics. Probably, they could lose just as quickly. Should they fail it seems we may see the final stage.

Ahead of this, a couple of points to consider on the topic. Previously, back in those heady early days, of light and heat, a column appeared calling it a phenomenon. Criticism followed, which demonstrated because everyone knows a method to show something definitely isn’t a cult is should followers respond with anger objecting to the questioning of the beliefs.

The developments in the last few days is just as interesting. Criticism of the approach has now become the cult. Social media is furious, angry English pundits, pictures of upset travelling fans cheated out of three days of cricket, like a room full of investors demanding recourse.

Meanwhile, there is the broader context of Australia’s more nuanced deep-seated frustration with the aggressive tourists, out there saying, your cherished traditions and have fostered and nurtured as one way of separating yourself from others, it’s just a joke in the end old boy.

This is the core issue. All movements are similar. Bazball was a cult because cricket is a cult. Or rather, English cricket has always been a cult, a clique, a garden party, a restricted environment with two hundred years of tradition and mystery defining it. Historically, this was where entry is limited. It’s the colonial game of England, the early image-makers. And notably, the country is a phenomenon, a system of unknown levels, a place that literally still has a king.

The players have been enclosed in this system for years. Seeking change, to create a less brutal environment, they are simply replicating their past, creating another a bubble, a limited community, however with 15 cool guys and a coach who wants you to be yourself as long as yourself is quite a lot like myself.

Focus on the moment. Confront risks. Despite efforts, you remain stuck.

With this mind, now is the time to offer compassion for Bazball, to acknowledge its merits, that are numerous. What is Bazball? Promoting liberation. Challenging orthodoxies. Batting aggressively|Attacking with