Bazball is worth saving — a call England must make despite losses

If Bazball is dead — and obituaries are being written furiously —– it would be a pity. England didn’t invent the attacking, free flowing style nor are they the first team to display a passion for the game that seems to go beyond victory and defeat. The great West Indies teams of the past played cricket with similar enthusiasm, each player expressing himself.

However, Bazball seems un-English in the land of Geoff Boycott and Alastair Cooke, defensive batters of great skill but all too aware that cricket was livelihood and caution mattered above all.

Skipper Ben Stokes and coach Brendon ‘Baz’ McCullum see cricket as entertainment, feel they owe something to the spectators, thoughts that would not have occurred to earlier generations. It probably helped that they were both born in New Zealand, the land of bungee-jumping and zorbing where it is difficult to take sports too seriously.

According to Michael Brearley, England’s high priest as successful captain and psychoanalyst, Bazball was born out of depression. Stokes came through a court case (for affray), the death of his father and injury while McCullum, who had lost interest in the game at one time was keen on players re-discovering the simple joys of playing it. An awareness that asked, like Eliot, “Where is the life we have lost in living?”

Working brilliantly

In Bazball, players “ran towards the danger”; failure didn’t mean excommunication. It has succeeded in its three and a half years now despite the skepticism of those who believed it was all a con. Opponents couldn’t put a finger on what Bazball was, and sometimes neither could England. But it worked brilliantly, with England winning Tests with fabulous fourth-innings chases against Pakistan, New Zealand, India. The sight of Joe Root reverse scooping fast bowlers for six seemed to give Bazball the final stamp of approval from one of the greats who swore by established technique.

Perhaps Bazball is best enjoyed by those who have no skin in the game. It is glorious cricket for those outside England who are not so invested in the result. Would an Indian batter be forgiven for getting out repeatedly because he kept making the same mistake although on other occasions the identical shot fetched tons of runs and encomiums?

To enjoy, even encourage an approach when it works but call it ‘stupid’ when it fails is bad faith.

And now Bazball is teetering. England’s approach in the Ashes series — it has taken Australia less than six playing days to go two-up — has seen to that. It hasn’t helped that while England ignored some of the traditional methods of preparing, like playing matches, McCullum has spoken of the team’s ‘over-preparation’ that led to the defeats. For a coach who rejects theories, that might be a theory too far.

In the day-night Test at Brisbane, England lost 15 wickets to balls that could have been left alone. Bazball has given batters like the hugely talented Harry Brook a leeway that was denied someone like David Gower in his time. Gower, who failed the same way he succeeded often paid for the failure. Brook, like his team, knows there is a lack of consequence now. This belief can be heady. Entertaining and reviving Test cricket is all fine, the home critics say, but the essence of competition is victory. A dull win for many is preferable to an exciting loss.

Make a choice

McCullum and Stokes have to make a choice. It is easy to stick to a philosophy when it’s working. When it isn’t, do you continue to put your faith in it, or tweak it so the players whose game isn’t suited to it — Ollie Pope is a good example — are given the leeway to play in the manner they are most comfortable with? My way or the highway? Or unity in diversity? India’s two series wins in Australia were founded on the latter. As Brearley pointed out years ago, a cricket team works by dint of differentiation, the skills and temperaments diverse. Not like a rowing team where everyone moves the same way.

Bazball has brought a freshness to contemporary cricket, and revealed greater possibilities. To throw it in the fireplace now and leave the Ashes in Australia would be a shame.