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The Life Cycle of a Cult tends to be defined by specific steps.

1. The Core Concept

An inspiring figure or leaders introduce a new and transcendent idea pledging a cure for alienated and vulnerable people.

Thus we find ourselves. They’re getting ready to storm the compound overseas. The gunships are circling. Smoke is rising from the out-houses. A lone figure, exposed, anxious, the words HIGH RELEASE POINT smeared across his chest in chicken blood, has come staggering through the lines and is removed under a blanket to a different team in county cricket.

Do you ever miss the beginning, when everything was fresh? The days of Bazball 1.0, of pure instinct.

2. Initial Adoration

Cult leaders promise a new start, hope for a future, love, success together united in belief in the big idea.

What did it represent initially? Just men on a balcony enjoying success. Body art. Strength. Jawlines. Elite male wellness energy. Of course, The team will claim they don’t use the label, amusingly as it’s denied, what was that spectacle?

However, everyone understands its essence. It’s the player executing a stroke so depraved it’s beyond belief. It’s the thrill of the leader in his final form, a look that says: focused titan, rugged appearance, natural look, genuinely raw you almost imagine to notice and find him positioned in the field shirtless and cradling a wild salmon.

It’s the opener often seen to talk in press conferences, out there looking like a happy little woodland creature smartly dressed, saying stuff like we’re challenging norms. And yes, the atmosphere, initially, was entirely positive.

3. A New Life

Building period. Unity enforced by rote learning of key phrases. These principles may seem irrational as a test of “true belief”.

Am I alone? The reaction, the fury, the feeling of letdown post-defeat feels overblown, unwarranted. The batting collapsed on the field, as history shows. They were savaged while bowling for a couple of hours as the bowling and captaincy fell apart, outplayed by Travis Head batting like England but better, adjusting to the pitch, a performer excelling with a kind of light around him.

Currently, we see the attacks, the anger, the sense of English Test cricket as a disgrace. The feeling seems to be that losing isn’t enough, they should be dismantled, to be scoured, destroyed, defeated via traditional methods of the bowler’s action, the low-fi orthodoxies of the bowler, seen enjoying his wickets humbly like he’s just been given a rewarding prize. What impact will this have?

4. External Conflict

Challenges surface because of mistakes. However, faults are ignored. It starts to feed on hatred of the outside world.

In truth, a few days before from the second Test, we have now reached a delicious point of tension in the story of this movement. Victory is possible in the next Test through aggressive play. Probably, defeat could come swiftly. Should they fail it seems we may see the final stage.

Prior to that, a couple of points worth saying on the topic. In the past, back in those heady early days, of optimism and energy, I wrote an article calling it a phenomenon. People were very angry, which proved the point since it’s clear how to confirm something definitely isn’t a cult is if supporters react defensively rejecting criticism of its truths.

Recent events recently is just as interesting. Criticism of the approach has turned into a movement. Social media is furious, disappointed commentators, shots of angry middle-aged followers overseas missing out on play, reminiscent of investors demanding recourse.

Conversely, there is the broader context of Australia’s more nuanced ingrained annoyance with the aggressive tourists, claiming, hey, that thing you love and have honed as part of your identity from the opposition, it’s not serious after all.

And this is the real point. Everything is a cult. The style was a trend as the game has its own culture. Or rather, the sport in England is closed, a clique, an elite gathering, an insular community with centuries of ceremonial past defining it. This has always been where influence is guarded. It’s the imperial sport of England, the original sports washers. And surprisingly, the country is a phenomenon, a series of esoteric hierarchies, a place that literally still has a king.

The team have been isolated in this environment from a young age. In trying to escape from it, to foster positivity, they are just repeating their past, forming a new circle, a limited community, but now with a new team and a leader promoting authenticity as long as yourself is quite a lot like myself.

Live where your feet are. Embrace challenges. Despite efforts, you’re always basically in the same place.

With this mind, now is the time to offer compassion for the approach, to acknowledge its merits, which are significant. How to define it? Creating a sense of freedom. Questioning traditions. Batting aggressively|Attacking with