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The Journey of a Cult is often defined by specific steps.

1. The Grand Vision

An inspiring figure or coaches introduce an innovative concept offering a cure for disconnected individuals.

Thus we find ourselves. Plans are in motion to storm the compound in Australia. The gunships are circling. Conflict emerges from within. One individual, vulnerable, anxious, the phrase ATTACKING MINDSET written on his body in chicken blood, has come staggering through the lines and is taken aside under a blanket for a temporary assignment in county cricket.

Do you recall the beginning, when optimism reigned? The era of early Bazball, of Bazball without brains.

2. Love-Bombing

Team architects offer a fresh beginning, a brighter tomorrow, love, redemption within a community with shared faith in the method.

How did it feel back then? A team united feeling good. Body art. Muscles. Determination. Elite male wellness energy. Oh sure, The squad insist Bazball doesn’t actually exist, amusingly because if it doesn’t exist, what exactly did I just watch?

However, everyone understands its essence. It’s Harry Brook executing a stroke so unconventional it has to be pixelated. It’s the excitement of the leader in his final form, an expression conveying: thoughtful warrior, beard made of wood, natural look, genuinely raw you almost imagine to notice and notice he’s fielding at mid-off shirtless embracing nature.

It’s the batsman often seen speaking publicly, out there looking like a joyful figure in a waistcoat, expressing thoughts like we are actively deconstructing the orange. Certainly, the energy, for quite a long time, was uplifting.

3. Expansion Period

Growth phase. Unity enforced via memorization of key phrases. These ideas are often illogical to prove commitment.

Does anyone else feel? The criticism, the anger, the sense of betrayal following the initial loss feels overblown, too much. The performance was poor in Perth, as they often do in Australia. They were torn apart in the field in a short span as the bowling and captaincy fell apart, carved around by Travis Head batting like England but better, adjusting to the pitch, an athlete shining with a kind of light around him.

Now there is the pile-on, the frustration, the perception of the team as a kind of abomination. The consensus is that defeat must be total, they should be dismantled, to be scoured, obliterated, defeated by the vengeful purity of Mitchell Starc’s movements, the conventional tactics of Scott Boland, marking achievements with a bashful smile similar to getting a nice new fishing rod. How will they respond?

4. Hate Bonding

Problems arise due to setbacks. However, faults are ignored. It starts to feed on hostility externally.

The fact remains, a few days before the upcoming game, we are at a critical juncture in the journey of this movement. Victory is possible in Brisbane through aggressive play. Alternatively, they could lose just as quickly. In case of defeat it feels like we really might be entering the death cult phase.

Before that happens, a couple of points worth saying on the topic. In the past, at the start, of passion and hope, I wrote an article calling it a phenomenon. Criticism followed, which proved the point as it’s known the best way of proving something definitely isn’t a cult is when its acolytes send hundreds of furiously one-eyed messages objecting to the questioning of the beliefs.

What has happened in the last few days are fascinating. It seems that hating Bazball has now become the cult. Online outrage is widespread, critical analysts, pictures of upset followers overseas disappointed by the short match, like a room full of people wanting fairness.

Meanwhile, there is the broader context of the opponent’s mixed ingrained annoyance at these weirdly passive-aggressive buccaneers, out there saying, the methods you value and have developed to distinguish yourselves from others, well, it’s all a bit of a gag ultimately.

And this is the real point. Everything is a cult. Bazball was a cult since the sport itself is insular. Or at least, the sport in England is closed, a clique, an elite gathering, a restricted environment with two hundred years of ceremonial past supporting it. This has always been a place where power and access are hoarded. It’s the imperial sport of the nation, the pioneering brand. And guess what, the country is a phenomenon, a series of esoteric hierarchies, a place that literally still has a king.

The team have been sealed up within this world since childhood. Attempting to break free, to build a better atmosphere, they are simply replicating their own experience, forming a new circle, a closed circle, but doing it this time with 15 cool guys and a coach who wants you to be yourself as long as yourself is quite a lot like myself.

Live where your feet are. Run towards the danger. But no matter how fast and far you run, you’re always basically in the same place.

With this mind, it might be appropriate to have some sympathy for the movement, to acknowledge its merits, of which there are many. What is Bazball? Promoting liberation. Defying norms. Batting aggressively|Attacking with