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The Life Cycle of a Cult can be characterized by distinct phases.

1. The Big Idea

A dominant personality or coaches propose a revolutionary approach offering a cure for alienated and vulnerable people.

Thus we find ourselves. They’re getting ready to storm the compound in Australia. Tensions are rising. Smoke is rising from the sidelines. An isolated player, vulnerable, shivering, the phrase ATTACKING MINDSET written on his body in chicken blood, has come staggering from the field and is taken aside under a blanket to a different team elsewhere.

Do you ever miss the early days, when everything was fresh? The days of Bazball 1.0, of uninhibited aggression.

2. Love-Bombing

Cult leaders guarantee a fresh beginning, optimism ahead, love, salvation among a group who all believe in the method.

What did it represent at first? Players celebrating basking in glory. Tattoos. Forearms. Jawlines. Elite male wellness energy. Oh sure, The squad will claim Bazball doesn’t actually exist, which is funny since it’s not recognized, what exactly did I just watch?

However, everyone understands its essence. It’s the batsman executing a stroke so depraved it defies description. It’s the adrenaline of the leader in his final form, an expression conveying: focused titan, strong features, untamed style, so authentically Modern Savage you wouldn’t be surprised to glance over and see him playing at mid-off stripped to the waist and cradling a wild salmon.

It’s Ben Duckett still being allowed to talk in press conferences, appearing as a cheerful animal formally attired, saying stuff like we’re breaking down traditions. Certainly, the energy, for quite a long time, was uplifting.

3. Expansion Period

Building period. Togetherness strengthened through repetition of the cult’s slogans. These ideas are often illogical as a test of “true belief”.

Is it just me? The reaction, the fury, the disappointment after the first Ashes Test defeat seems too strong, unwarranted. England batted badly during the match, as is typical there. They were torn apart in the field during a brief period when tactics failed, carved around by Travis Head imitating their style effectively, adaptive to conditions, a performer excelling with brilliance.

Now there is the pile-on, the frustration, the sense of English Test cricket as a failure. The consensus is that defeat must be total, they must be humbled, to be purged, destroyed, defeated via traditional methods of Mitchell Starc’s movements, the simple basics of the veteran, out there celebrating successes with a bashful smile similar to getting a pleasant gift. How will they respond?

4. Hate Bonding

Issues emerge due to setbacks. But the cult cannot admit errors. It begins to thrive on hostility externally.

The fact remains, a few days before the upcoming game, we have now reached a delicious point of tension in the lifespan of this approach. Victory is possible in the next Test with bold tactics. More likely, they could lose just as quickly. In case of defeat it appears we really might be entering the decline.

Prior to that, there are two things worth saying on the topic. More than two years ago, during the initial excitement, of passion and hope, I wrote an article suggesting Bazball was a cult. Criticism followed, which proved the point since it’s clear a method to show that it’s not a closed group is when its acolytes respond with anger objecting to the questioning of its truths.

Recent events recently is just as interesting. It seems that hating Bazball has now become the cult. We have a uniformly angry internet, disappointed commentators, images of frustrated followers overseas cheated out of three days of cricket, like a room full of investors demanding recourse.

On the other hand, there is the broader context of the opponent’s mixed ingrained annoyance with the aggressive tourists, stating, the methods you value and have developed as one way of separating yourself from the opposition, well, it’s all a bit of a gag in the end old boy.

This is the core issue. All movements are similar. The style was a trend since the sport itself is insular. Or rather, the sport in England is closed, a circle, an elite gathering, a restricted environment with two hundred years 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 system of unknown levels, a royal family remains.

The players have been enclosed in this system since childhood. Seeking change, to build a better atmosphere, they are mirroring their past, building another enclosure, a limited community, 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. Run towards the danger. Despite efforts, things stay similar.

Reflecting on this, it is perhaps the moment to show understanding for Bazball, to acknowledge its merits, that are numerous. What is Bazball? Creating a sense of freedom. Challenging orthodoxies. Batting aggressively|Attacking with