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The Life Cycle of a Phenomenon is often marked by specific steps.

1. The Big Idea

A dominant personality or figureheads introduce an innovative concept that promises a cure for struggling players.

So here we are. Preparations are underway to confront the system down in Brisbane. Pressure is mounting. Signs of trouble appear from the sidelines. A lone figure, exposed, nervous, the slogan POSITIVE INTENT smeared across his chest as a symbol, has stumbled into view and is removed with discretion towards an inconclusive loan stint elsewhere.

Do you recall the beginning, when the world was still young? The era of early Bazball, of Bazball without brains.

2. Initial Adoration

Movement founders promise a fresh beginning, a brighter tomorrow, camaraderie, success within a community with shared faith in the method.

What was this thing initially? A team united feeling good. Body art. Muscles. Jawlines. Confident masculinity. Oh sure, England’s players insist they don’t use the label, amusingly because if it doesn’t exist, what did we see?

But we know what it is. It’s the player attempting a move so unconventional it has to be pixelated. It’s the adrenaline of the leader at his peak, a demeanor suggesting: focused titan, rugged appearance, hair woven from beaver hide, truly contemporary you half-expect to notice and see him playing at mid-off bare-chested and cradling a wild salmon.

It’s the opener continuing to have permission to talk in press conferences, appearing as a joyful figure in a waistcoat, saying stuff like we’re challenging norms. Indeed, the energy, for quite a long time, was uplifting.

3. Expansion Period

Building period. Togetherness strengthened through repetition of mantras. These ideas are often illogical as a test of “true belief”.

Is it just me? The criticism, the fury, the feeling of letdown post-defeat feels overblown, overdone. England batted badly on the field, as history shows. They were savaged while bowling in a short span as plans unraveled, manipulated by the opponent imitating their style effectively, adaptive to conditions, a performer excelling with aura.

Now there is the attacks, the rage, the view of the sport as a failure. The consensus is that losing isn’t enough, they need to lose righteously, to be scoured, flame-throwered, overwhelmed by the vengeful purity of the bowler’s action, the conventional tactics of Scott Boland, marking achievements with a bashful smile as if receiving a nice new fishing rod. What will this do to them?

4. Hate Bonding

Issues emerge because of mistakes. But the cult cannot admit errors. It starts to feed on hostility externally.

In truth, half a week out the upcoming game, we’ve entered a delicious point of tension in the journey of this approach. They might succeed in the next Test through aggressive play. Alternatively, they could lose just as quickly. Should they fail it feels like we may see the death cult phase.

Before that happens, there are two things worth saying on the topic. More than two years ago, back in those heady early days, of passion and hope, an piece was published calling it a phenomenon. There was outrage, which was helpful because everyone knows a method to show something definitely isn’t a cult is if supporters send hundreds of furiously one-eyed messages objecting to the questioning of its truths.

Recent events in the last few days is just as interesting. Opposition to the style has now become the cult. We have a uniformly angry internet, angry English pundits, images of frustrated followers overseas missing out on play, reminiscent of people wanting fairness.

Meanwhile, we have the wider backdrop of Australia’s more nuanced more culturally hard-wired exasperation towards the unconventional visitors, out there saying, your cherished traditions and have fostered and nurtured to distinguish yourselves culturally from us, it’s just a joke in the end old boy.

Here lies the truth. Everything is a cult. Bazball was a cult since the sport itself is insular. Or rather, English cricket has always been a cult, a clique, an elite gathering, a closed world with two hundred years of ceremonial past defining it. It has long been a place where power and access are hoarded. It’s the imperial sport of the British, the original sports washers. And guess what, the nation has its own culture, a structure of hidden ranks, a place that literally still has a king.

The players have been enclosed within this world for years. Seeking change, to foster positivity, they are simply replicating their own experience, forming a new circle, a limited community, but doing it this time with a modern squad and a leader encouraging individuality if you fit the mold.

Stay present. Confront risks. Despite efforts, things stay similar.

Considering this, it is perhaps the moment to have some sympathy for the approach, to acknowledge its merits, of which there are many. How to define it? Encouraging expression. Questioning traditions. Batting aggressively|Attacking with