Opinion
The Bazball reality: England entertain, but their opponents win
Daniel Brettig
The Age chief cricket writerPondering the reputation of the West Indian team in the years before they became a global power, former wicketkeeper Deryck Murray once described how the Caribbean side became everyone’s favourite team.
“The West Indians were known as the great entertainers,” he said. “Teams loved playing against us, particularly because they would win. We would do the entertaining, and they would win, so it was great for them.”
England captain Ben Stokes.Credit: PA
Bazball England and their captain Ben Stokes are at a very similar juncture. They have, it is true, provided plenty of indelible memories for spectators over the past couple of years, much as Sir Frank Worrell’s West Indian side did in Australia in 1960-61 and for many seasons after.
But the lofty rhetoric about changing the way Test cricket is played, and making fans feel “lucky” that they have been able to witness England in flight, looks decidedly ridiculous lined up against the current reality: England entertain and their biggest opponents win.
It can be difficult to find references by Stokes or England to the actual competition they are playing in, the World Test Championship. Bazball began when England were hopelessly behind in the 2021-2023 cycle, won by Australia.
After failing to beat the Australians on home soil last summer, and then being comprehensively defeated in India, they are now at the very bottom of the WTC table for this edition. Incredibly, that puts England behind a group of cash-poor nations that have had their Test teams sapped of talent by Twenty20 franchise cricket.
An unbroken sequence of victories, plus a major stumble by Pat Cummins’ Australia and others, would be required for England to challenge for the decider this time.
But then the art of distraction has always been a key part of the Bazball story. When it started, England’s Test side needed to stop thinking about poor results and hesitant play and start believing in themselves.
When England went 2-0 down to the Australian team after the Lord’s Test, following Jonny Bairstow’s stumping by Alex Carey, Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum needed a distraction from the reality of the scoreline: a furore over the spirit of cricket certainly came in handy.
And when rain at Old Trafford, hardly an unforeseeable event in Manchester, cost England the chance to keep the series alive with one Test to play, Stokes sought to distract his players from the sad reality of a missed opportunity.
“Everything we’ve done up until now isn’t going to stop because we haven’t managed to win the urn back,” Stokes told his players in a speech captured by an ECB documentary. “The reward for our work isn’t what we get but what we become.
“And what we have managed to do is we’ve managed to become a sports team that will live forever in the memory of people who were lucky enough to witness us play cricket.”
This not only sounded vaguely cultish, but also showed masterly capacity to change the story to suit England. Not even winning the Ashes was important any more.
Earlier this year, during the India series defeat, things took a turn even further towards the outlandish when the opener Ben Duckett claimed that Yashasvi Jaiswal was playing aggressively because England do.
The lofty rhetoric about changing the way Test cricket is played, and making fans feel “lucky” that they have been able to witness England in flight, looks decidedly ridiculous lined up against the current reality: England entertain and their biggest opponents win.
“When you see players from the opposition playing like that, it almost feels like we should take some credit that they’re playing differently than how other people play Test cricket,” Duckett had said. Another distraction.
As is the case with politicians, it has become necessary to ignore the noise that England’s leaders and players are generating and actually look at what they are doing. This week, Stokes and McCullum dropped a trio of players previously considered Bazball success stories, and some of the more outspoken members of the team.
Bairstow and Ollie Robinson are almost certainly gone from Test cricket for good, while the spinner Jack Leach has been overtaken by Shoaib Bashir.
These were not the flourishes of “the team that everybody will always remember”. They were the clear-eyed changes wrought by poor results, looking ahead to the next Ashes in 18 months’ time.
Murray’s West Indies evolved from great entertainers to great winners by figuring out how to succeed in Australia. England, regardless of what they say, are trying to do the same.
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