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The Journey of a Cult tends to be marked by specific steps.

1. The Big Idea

An inspiring figure or coaches present a new and transcendent idea pledging a solution for disconnected individuals.

Thus we find ourselves. They’re getting ready to storm the compound overseas. Pressure is mounting. Conflict emerges from the sidelines. A lone figure, exposed, nervous, the phrase ATTACKING MINDSET written on his body as a symbol, has stumbled through the lines and is being led away with discretion towards an inconclusive loan stint elsewhere.

Remember the early days, when optimism reigned? The era of early Bazball, of Bazball without brains.

2. The Honeymoon Phase

Movement founders offer a new start, hope for a future, camaraderie, salvation among a group with shared faith in the philosophy.

How did it feel initially? Players celebrating basking in glory. Ink. Strength. Determination. Confident masculinity. Of course, The squad insist Bazball doesn’t actually exist, amusingly as it’s denied, what did we see?

However, everyone understands what it is. It’s Harry Brook playing a shot so outrageous it defies description. It’s the adrenaline of the captain in his final form, a look that says: thoughtful warrior, beard made of wood, untamed style, truly contemporary you almost imagine to notice and see him playing at mid-off bare-chested holding a fish.

It’s the opener still being allowed to talk in press conferences, appearing as a happy little woodland creature in a waistcoat, expressing thoughts like we’re breaking down traditions. And yes, the vibe, initially, was only good energy.

3. Expansion Period

Building period. Togetherness strengthened by rote learning of key phrases. These ideas are often illogical as a loyalty check.

Am I alone? The reaction, the fury, the feeling of letdown post-defeat feels overblown, overdone. England batted badly during the match, as they often do in Australia. They were savaged in the field in a short span as plans unraveled, manipulated by Travis Head batting like England but better, adjusting to the pitch, an athlete shining with brilliance.

And now we have this the pile-on, the rage, the perception of the team as a failure. The opinion suggests that defeat must be total, they need to lose righteously, to be cleansed, destroyed, defeated by the vengeful purity of Mitchell Starc’s movements, the low-fi orthodoxies of Scott Boland, out there celebrating his wickets modestly as if receiving a rewarding prize. What will this do to them?

4. External Conflict

Issues emerge because of mistakes. However, faults are ignored. It begins to thrive on hatred of the outside world.

The fact remains, a few days before from the second Test, we’ve entered a critical juncture in the story of this approach. Victory is possible overseas through aggressive play. Alternatively, failure may follow. In case of defeat it seems we really might be entering the death cult phase.

Ahead of this, there are two things worth saying on the topic. In the past, back in those heady early days, of optimism and energy, a column appeared calling it a phenomenon. People were very angry, which proved the point because everyone knows a method to show something definitely isn’t a cult is if supporters react defensively rejecting criticism of the philosophy.

The developments recently are fascinating. Criticism of the approach is now the trend. Social media is furious, disappointed commentators, pictures of upset supporters abroad cheated out of three days of cricket, like a room full of investors demanding recourse.

Conversely, there is the broader context of Australia’s more nuanced more culturally hard-wired exasperation with the aggressive tourists, stating, your cherished traditions and have honed as part of your identity from the opposition, it’s just a joke in the end old boy.

This is the core issue. Everything is a cult. The style was a trend because cricket is a cult. Or rather, the sport in England is closed, a group, an elite gathering, a restricted environment with two hundred years of opaque and ritualistic cult history behind it. This has always been where entry is limited. It’s the colonial game of England, the original sports washers. And surprisingly, Britain is itself a cult, a system of unknown levels, a place that literally still has a king.

The team have been isolated in this environment since childhood. In trying to escape from it, to foster positivity, they are just repeating their own experience, building another enclosure, a limited community, but now with a modern squad and a coach encouraging individuality provided you conform.

Stay present. Confront risks. But no matter how fast and far you run, you’re always basically in the same place.

Reflecting on this, now is the time to have some sympathy for the approach, to recognize its positives, which are significant. How to define it? Promoting liberation. Defying norms. Batting aggressively|Attacking with