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

1. The Core Concept

A charismatic leader or figureheads propose an innovative concept offering a solution for struggling players.

And so it goes. Plans are in motion to challenge the establishment down in Brisbane. The gunships are circling. Conflict emerges from the sidelines. A lone figure, exposed, shivering, the phrase ATTACKING MINDSET written on his body in chicken blood, has emerged from the field and is taken aside in secrecy to a different team elsewhere.

Remember the beginning, when the world was still young? The era of early Bazball, of uninhibited aggression.

2. The Honeymoon Phase

Team architects promise a new start, optimism ahead, camaraderie, salvation within a community with shared faith in the big idea.

How did it feel initially? Players celebrating enjoying success. Body art. Forearms. Jawlines. Elite male wellness energy. Admittedly, The team often say it’s not a real term, amusingly as it’s denied, what exactly did I just watch?

Yet it’s clear what it is. It’s the player playing a shot so outrageous it has to be pixelated. It’s the excitement of Ben Stokes in his final form, a look that says: thoughtful warrior, rugged appearance, hair woven from beaver hide, genuinely raw you almost imagine to notice and find him positioned at mid-off shirtless embracing nature.

It’s the batsman still being allowed speaking publicly, out there looking like a happy little woodland creature smartly dressed, expressing thoughts like we are actively deconstructing the orange. And yes, the vibe, for quite a long time, was uplifting.

3. A New Life

Building period. Togetherness strengthened via memorization of key phrases. These beliefs are often illogical as a loyalty check.

Is it just me? The criticism, the fury, the disappointment following the initial loss seems too strong, too much. England batted badly during the match, as they often do in Australia. They were torn apart defensively in a short span as the bowling and captaincy fell apart, outplayed by the batsman imitating their style effectively, adaptive to conditions, a man playing with aura.

Now there is the pile-on, the anger, the sense of English Test cricket as a kind of abomination. The feeling seems to be that defeat must be total, they need to lose righteously, to be scoured, obliterated, destroyed through sheer skill of the pace attack, the conventional tactics of the bowler, marking his wickets humbly as if receiving a nice new fishing rod. How will they respond?

4. The Backlash Phase

Challenges surface from failures in the plan. But the cult cannot admit errors. It starts to feed on hatred of the outside world.

The fact remains, a few days before the upcoming game, we’ve entered a critical juncture in the journey of this thing. England could quite easily win in the next Test in a blur of adrenal disruption. Probably, defeat could come swiftly. In case of defeat it feels like we could be witnessing the death cult phase.

Ahead of this, there are two things to note about this. More than two years ago, back in those heady early days, of passion and hope, I wrote an article labeling it a movement. There was outrage, which proved the point since it’s clear how to confirm something definitely isn’t a cult is should followers respond with anger rejecting criticism of the beliefs.

Recent events lately is just as interesting. Opposition to the style is now the trend. We have a uniformly angry internet, angry English pundits, shots of angry middle-aged followers overseas missing out on play, reminiscent of people wanting fairness.

On the other hand, there is the broader context of the host’s complex deep-seated frustration at these weirdly passive-aggressive buccaneers, claiming, your cherished traditions and have developed to distinguish yourselves culturally from us, it’s not serious after all.

This is the core issue. It’s all cults. The style was a trend as the game has its own culture. In fact, the team has long been exclusive, a clique, a private event, a restricted environment with centuries of tradition and mystery defining it. This has always been where entry is limited. It’s the British pastime of the nation, the early image-makers. And notably, the nation has its own culture, a series of esoteric hierarchies, a royal family remains.

England’s cricketers have been sealed up in this system since childhood. Attempting to break free, to build a better atmosphere, they are simply replicating their upbringing, forming a new circle, a closed circle, however with 15 cool guys and a mentor promoting authenticity as long as yourself is quite a lot like myself.

Live where your feet are. Run towards the danger. Despite efforts, you remain stuck.

With this mind, it might be appropriate to offer compassion for Bazball, to acknowledge its merits, of which there are many. How to define it? Encouraging expression. Defying norms. Batting aggressively|Attacking with