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The Journey of a Cult is often defined by clear stages.

1. The Grand Vision

A charismatic leader or leaders introduce an innovative concept pledging a panacea for alienated and vulnerable people.

So here we are. They’re getting ready to confront the system in Australia. Pressure is mounting. Conflict emerges from the sidelines. A lone figure, naked, nervous, the words HIGH RELEASE POINT written on his body as a statement, has come staggering through the lines and is taken aside under a blanket to a different team elsewhere.

Remember the early days, when the world was still young? The days of Bazball 1.0, of Bazball without brains.

2. Love-Bombing

Team architects guarantee a fresh beginning, optimism ahead, love, redemption together with shared faith in the philosophy.

What was this thing back then? Players celebrating basking in glory. Tattoos. Forearms. Determination. Confident masculinity. Admittedly, The team often say it’s not a real term, amusingly because if it doesn’t exist, what was that spectacle?

Yet it’s clear the concept. It’s Harry Brook executing a stroke so depraved it has to be pixelated. It’s the excitement of Ben Stokes at his peak, a look that says: focused titan, beard made of wood, untamed style, truly contemporary you wouldn’t be surprised to glance over and find him positioned in the field shirtless embracing nature.

It’s the batsman still being allowed addressing the media, resembling a happy little woodland creature formally attired, saying stuff like we’re breaking down traditions. Indeed, the atmosphere, for a significant period, was uplifting.

3. A New Life

Development stage. Togetherness strengthened via memorization of the cult’s slogans. These principles are often illogical as a test of “true belief”.

Is it just me? The backlash, the anger, the disappointment following the initial loss appears excessive, unwarranted. The batting collapsed during the match, as history shows. They were torn apart defensively during a brief period as the bowling and captaincy fell apart, carved around by Travis Head batting like England but better, adaptive to conditions, a man playing with aura.

And now we have this the criticism, the anger, the perception of the team as a failure. The consensus is that defeat must be total, they should be dismantled, to be scoured, flame-throwered, defeated through sheer skill of the bowler’s action, the low-fi orthodoxies of the veteran, out there celebrating successes with a bashful smile like he’s just been given a rewarding prize. What impact will this have?

4. External Conflict

Challenges surface from failures in the plan. But the cult cannot admit errors. It starts to feed on hostility externally.

The fact remains, a few days before from the second Test, we’ve entered a critical juncture in the journey of this approach. Victory is possible in the next Test with bold tactics. Alternatively, failure may follow. In case of defeat it feels like we may see the decline.

Before that happens, a couple of points to note regarding this. More than two years ago, during the initial excitement, of light and heat, a column appeared labeling it a movement. There was outrage, which was helpful because everyone knows how to confirm something definitely isn’t a cult is when its acolytes respond with anger objecting to the questioning of the beliefs.

What has happened in the last few days are equally notable. It seems that hating Bazball has turned into a movement. Social media is furious, critical analysts, shots of angry middle-aged supporters abroad missing out on play, like a room full of investors demanding recourse.

Meanwhile, we have the wider backdrop of the opponent’s mixed more culturally hard-wired exasperation at these weirdly passive-aggressive buccaneers, claiming, your cherished traditions and have fostered and nurtured as part of your identity from others, it’s not serious ultimately.

And this is the real point. Everything is a cult. The style was a trend because cricket is a cult. In fact, the team has long been exclusive, a clique, an elite gathering, an insular community with a long history of opaque and ritualistic cult history defining it. It has long been where entry is limited. It’s the colonial game of the nation, the early image-makers. And notably, Britain is itself a cult, a structure of hidden ranks, a monarchy still exists.

England’s cricketers have been sealed up in this environment for years. Seeking change, to foster positivity, they are simply replicating their past, creating another a bubble, a limited community, but doing it this time with a modern squad and a mentor encouraging individuality provided you conform.

Live where your feet are. Run towards the danger. However much you change, things stay similar.

Reflecting on this, it might be appropriate to have some sympathy for Bazball, to appreciate its good points, of which there are many. What is Bazball? Promoting liberation. Challenging orthodoxies. Batting aggressively|Attacking with