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

1. The Core Concept

A dominant personality or figureheads introduce a new and transcendent idea offering a solution for struggling players.

So here we are. Plans are in motion to confront the system overseas. Pressure is mounting. Smoke is rising from the sidelines. An isolated player, exposed, shivering, the slogan POSITIVE INTENT written on his body as a symbol, has stumbled through the lines and is removed in secrecy for a temporary assignment at Derbyshire.

Do you ever miss the early days, when optimism reigned? The era of early Bazball, of pure instinct.

2. Initial Adoration

Cult leaders guarantee a reboot, hope for a future, love, salvation within a community with shared faith in the philosophy.

How did it feel initially? Players celebrating enjoying success. Tattoos. Strength. Determination. Confident masculinity. Of course, The team insist it’s not a real term, which is funny because if it doesn’t exist, what exactly did I just watch?

But we know the concept. It’s Harry Brook executing a stroke so unconventional it has to be pixelated. It’s the excitement of Ben Stokes in his final form, a demeanor suggesting: focused titan, rugged appearance, natural look, genuinely raw you half-expect to notice and find him positioned on the ground shirtless embracing nature.

It’s the batsman continuing to have permission speaking publicly, out there looking like a joyful figure in a waistcoat, uttering phrases such as we’re breaking down traditions. Indeed, the atmosphere, for a significant period, was entirely positive.

3. Expansion Period

Growth phase. Unity enforced by rote learning of the cult’s slogans. These beliefs are often illogical to prove commitment.

Does anyone else feel? The reaction, the outrage, the feeling of letdown following the initial loss seems too strong, overdone. The performance was poor during the match, as history shows. They were torn apart in the field for a couple of hours as the bowling and captaincy fell apart, outplayed by the batsman playing aggressively but smarter, adjusting to the pitch, an athlete shining with a kind of light around him.

Currently, we see the pile-on, the anger, the sense of English Test cricket as a kind of abomination. The opinion suggests that England don’t just need to lose, they should be dismantled, to be cleansed, flame-throwered, destroyed through sheer skill of the bowler’s action, the simple basics of the veteran, seen enjoying achievements modestly as if receiving a nice new fishing rod. How will they respond?

4. Hate Bonding

Issues emerge from failures in the plan. Yet, mistakes are denied. It begins to thrive on hatred of the outside world.

Ultimately, approaching the next match, we have now reached an intriguing moment in the story of this approach. Victory is possible overseas in a blur of adrenal disruption. Alternatively, they could lose just as quickly. And if they do lose it seems we may see the final stage.

Ahead of this, a couple of points to note on the topic. In the past, back in those heady early days, of optimism and energy, I wrote an article labeling it a movement. Criticism followed, which proved the point since it’s clear the best way of proving lack of cult status is when its acolytes respond with anger rejecting criticism of its truths.

Recent events recently are fascinating. It seems that hating Bazball has turned into a movement. Social media is furious, angry English pundits, pictures of upset followers overseas disappointed by the short match, similar to investors demanding recourse.

On the other hand, there is the broader context of the host’s complex more culturally hard-wired exasperation at these weirdly passive-aggressive buccaneers, out there saying, the methods you value and have fostered and nurtured as one way of separating yourself culturally from us, it’s not serious in the end old boy.

Here lies the truth. Everything is a cult. The style was a trend as the game has its own culture. Or rather, the team has long been exclusive, a clique, a garden party, a restricted environment with a long history of tradition and mystery behind it. It has long been a place where power and access are hoarded. It’s the colonial game of the nation, the early image-makers. And surprisingly, Britain is itself a cult, a structure of hidden ranks, a place that literally still has a king.

The players have been enclosed within this world since childhood. Attempting to break free, to create a less brutal environment, they are just repeating their past, forming a new circle, a closed circle, but doing it this time with 15 cool guys and a coach encouraging individuality as long as yourself is quite a lot like myself.

Live where your feet are. Embrace challenges. However much you change, you remain stuck.

With this mind, now is the time to have some sympathy for Bazball, to appreciate its good points, that are numerous. What is Bazball? Encouraging expression. Challenging orthodoxies. Batting aggressively|Attacking with