Life is for grabbing by the Bazballs

The renowned opera singer Maria Callas said that the way to greatness was to treat every performance as if it were a rehearsal. This is harder than it sounds. I once spent a happy day in rehearsals for a TV show, with a presenter who was dazzlingly funny and inventive throughout. Just as the cameras were about to roll, however, I watched her tighten. The dazzle dimmed as she, perhaps subconsciously, switched to a more polished professional mode. She did a good job that night, but not the great one I knew she was capable of.

This brings me to the England men’s cricket team. They completed their five-match Test series in Australia last Thursday morning, losing by four games to one. The mass condemnation is already verging on the hysterical, but I come to praise England, not to bury them. I understand if you’re not interested in cricket but don’t stop reading just yet. This is the story of a revolution.

Briefly, for the uninitiated, back in 2022, this England team, under their new head coach, Brendon “Baz” McCullum, very deliberately adopted a mindset based largely on self-belief and endeavour. Baz and his new captain, Ben Stokes, set about rewriting how Test match cricket could and should be played. Shorter forms of the game, played with a white ball instead of the traditional red, imposed – with the immediacy of time-constraints – a swashbuckling, risk-taking style that was, well, entertaining.

Test cricket came with many positive adjectives attached – fascinating, engrossing, chess-like – but “entertaining” was used only intermittently. In the age of TikTok, there was a danger that the longer form might become the enclave of a select group of fedora-wearing purists, while the thrills and spills of the white-ball game would draw a much bigger crowd. Test cricket enthusiasts like myself had seen what happened to Jacob’s Cheddar biscuits when their fun-sized spin-off, Mini Cheddars, went on to exceed the popularity of the original, larger version. We couldn’t let that happen to Test cricket.

Thus, “Bazball” was born. It was Test cricket but played with the same kind of positive attitude that had so illuminated the white-ball game. It was a revelation. Just as Maria Callas had advised, the natural exuberance and daring of the training ground was now transferred into the main arena. Risks were taken, fun replaced fear, the players’ dazzle remained largely undimmed. We had all believed that Test cricket had to be played with tremendous caution. Someone had finally asked, “What if?”. A beautiful freedom ensued. Of course, there were failures – risk rarely comes with a 100% success rate – but the rewards were so exhilarating, the failures seemed to matter a lot less. I know we lost in Australia but, for me, the white-knuckle joys of Bazball still easily outweigh the disappointments.

From the beginning, there was a long line of experts, many of them ex-players, taking bets on how long it would be before this reckless experiment crashed and burned. They knew the way to play Test cricket and this wasn’t it. They sounded a bit like those prog rockers who poured scorn on the rise of punk. They acknowledged that it had plenty of anarchic energy and excitement but, they insisted, when the going gets tough, you really need an augmented chord.

Before Bazball, the individual player – with a few maverick exceptions – had to follow the conventional wisdom: be careful, take your time, don’t worry if the crowd are launching yet another Mexican wave just to stay awake. There was excitement, of course, it’s just that nowadays it’s seen as obligatory.

Many critics have somewhat gleefully suggested that, after losing in Australia, Bazball is dead but no one suggested abandoning “proper” Test cricket when previous England teams, always employing those time-honoured methods, experienced defeat. Would that they had. Already, with the protective boxes still warm, there is talk of McCullum being sacked or, at least, pressured into downsizing his vision. Fear sits by its telephone, waiting to be recalled to the squad.

I think we can all learn from Bazball. The Labour party has played and missed a few times, during this current innings, but I hope the captain is telling them to ignore the doubters and continue to play their shots. I don’t think for one second that McCullum and Stokes will abandon a philosophy they deeply believe in order to keep their jobs. I really want to be able to say that of the government. On the other hand, I would be very happy to see America abandon Bazball altogether and adopt a more cautious, responsible mindset again. If that gets boring, they can always try a Mexican wave. It’s probably called an American wave now.

Photograph by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images