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The Journey of a Phenomenon can be characterized by clear stages.

1. The Big Idea

A dominant personality or leaders introduce an innovative concept offering a cure for alienated and vulnerable people.

So here we are. Plans are in motion to challenge the establishment overseas. Tensions are rising. Conflict emerges from the out-houses. An isolated player, naked, shivering, the words HIGH RELEASE POINT displayed prominently in chicken blood, has come staggering from the field and is removed under a blanket to a different team in county cricket.

Do you recall the beginning, when the world was still young? The era of early Bazball, of pure instinct.

2. Love-Bombing

Cult leaders offer a new start, a brighter tomorrow, love, redemption together who all believe in the method.

How did it feel initially? Just men on a balcony feeling good. Ink. Muscles. Determination. Confident masculinity. Admittedly, England’s players often say it’s not a real term, ironically because if it doesn’t exist, what did we see?

However, everyone understands what it is. It’s the player executing a stroke so depraved it defies description. It’s the thrill of the leader at his peak, an expression conveying: focused titan, strong features, natural look, truly contemporary you almost imagine to glance over and see him playing on the ground shirtless and cradling a wild salmon.

It’s the batsman continuing to have permission addressing the media, appearing as a cheerful animal in a waistcoat, saying stuff like we are actively deconstructing the orange. Certainly, the vibe, initially, was entirely positive.

3. A New Life

Growth phase. Togetherness strengthened through repetition of mantras. These principles can appear contradictory as a test of “true belief”.

Is it just me? The criticism, the outrage, the sense of betrayal post-defeat feels overblown, overdone. The batting collapsed on the field, as is typical there. They were savaged while bowling for a couple of hours as plans unraveled, outplayed by the batsman imitating their style effectively, adjusting to the pitch, a performer excelling with brilliance.

And now we have this the attacks, the anger, the view of the sport as a failure. The opinion suggests that losing isn’t enough, they must be humbled, to be scoured, obliterated, defeated by the vengeful purity of the bowler’s action, the conventional tactics of the bowler, out there celebrating achievements modestly similar to getting a rewarding prize. How will they respond?

4. Hate Bonding

Challenges surface from failures in the plan. But the cult cannot admit errors. It turns to hostility externally.

Ultimately, a few days before from the second Test, we’ve entered a delicious point of tension in the lifespan of this movement. They might succeed in Brisbane with bold tactics. Alternatively, they could lose just as quickly. In case of defeat it appears we may see the final stage.

Ahead of this, a couple of points to consider on the topic. Previously, back in those heady early days, of passion and hope, a column appeared calling it a phenomenon. People were very angry, which demonstrated because everyone knows the best way of proving something definitely isn’t a cult is if supporters react defensively rejecting criticism of the beliefs.

The developments in the last few days are fascinating. It seems that hating Bazball has turned into a movement. Online outrage is widespread, angry English pundits, images of frustrated followers overseas cheated out of three days of cricket, like a room full of investors demanding recourse.

Meanwhile, we have the wider backdrop of the host’s complex ingrained annoyance with the aggressive tourists, stating, hey, that thing you love and have fostered and nurtured as one way of separating yourself culturally from us, well, it’s all a bit of a gag in the end old boy.

And this is the real point. Everything is a cult. The style was a trend as the game has its own culture. Or at least, English cricket has always been a cult, a clique, a private event, a closed world with two hundred years of ceremonial past supporting it. It has long been a place where power and access are hoarded. It’s the colonial game of the British, the pioneering brand. And guess what, the country is a phenomenon, a structure of hidden ranks, a monarchy still exists.

The players have been enclosed in this environment since childhood. Seeking change, to create a less brutal environment, they are just repeating their own experience, forming a new circle, an exclusive group, however with a new team and a leader encouraging individuality provided you conform.

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

With this mind, now is the time to show understanding for the movement, to acknowledge its merits, which are significant. How to define it? Creating a sense of freedom. Challenging orthodoxies. Batting aggressively|Attacking with