Two summers ago, I wrote an article suggesting that Bazball was a cult. The clinical definition seemed to fit: a sense of mission, charismatic dominant individuals, innovative and elitist presentation, and aggressive hostility towards outside questioning. In response, I received angry messages from England fans uniformly convinced it was not a cult, that outsiders could never grasp the purity of its goals, and that inspirational leadership would prevail. Thousands of unquestioning acolytes can't be wrong.
A year and a half later, I would like to take this back. Bazball is not a cult. Maybe it's actually a death cult. Because England are, on the numbers, suddenly terrible at cricket. And terrible in a way that feels uniform and on-message, the first fruits of the England and Wales Cricket Board's Bazball multiverse.
As of January 2025, Brendon McCullum runs all the men's senior teams. The Lions have Andrew Flintoff in charge, a Total Bazball hire. The England women went to Australia led by a head coach intent on importing that same regime-friendly energy. England Cricket became a unified brand. And the numbers across the board in that period read: played 16, won one, lost 14, with three series lost and one more on the way.
This can change very quickly. It could change in the second one-day international against India on Sunday. England are still stacked with talent. But they do also keep losing, and losing in a way that is interesting both in its unified tone, and because in many ways it really doesn't seem to matter that much.
It is important to define terms at this point. Bazball. What is it? Coined as a joke on a Cricinfo podcast, Bazball was initially shorthand for a fun and aggressive new way of playing Test cricket. But Bazball was always an optic too, a kind of male wellbeing brand. The vibe was key: sitting on a balcony, sun rippling across interesting sunglasses, sculpted beard, guns, chest, singlet, feet up no socks, artisan coffee plus golf lad fusion, gym bro with man-feelings, being just an extraordinary guy with a super-cool energy.
The run of defeats hasn't come out of nowhere. The men have been losing for a while. The record in all formats since October 2023 reads won 25, lost 34. This matters because we have a major white ball year from here plus two more. If Stokes cannot find form, the Bazball era risks ending.
