Kmflett's Blog

So, Farewell then Bazball

With the unexpected resignation of Ben Stokes as England cricket captain on 28^th June the future not only of Coach Brendan McCullum but also his method of playing, known as Bazball is under question.

Marx, who was not as far as is known a cricket fan, saw a declining rate of profit as being one of the key issues with a capitalist market economy. One way of looking at this is, that while an innovative company can make good profits initially, competition develops. With this more investment is needed to keep up develop, and more capital investment starts to impact on the initial profit rate, as technological advance decreases the amount of workers needed, from profit is derived. It is however a tendency not an absolute.

There is a sporting analogy. In football from time to time a manager introduces a new way of playing which brings initial success. However over time opposing sides work out what the new way is, and find effective ways to counter it.

The same appears to be true of Bazball. It first operated in the summer of 2022 when England won a series against, er, New Zealand. For an extended initial period the success of the England’s Men’s team in Tests with McCullum as Coach and Stokes as captain was very high. From 2024 into 2025 the success began to drop, so that before the 2025/6 Ashes series which England lost 4-1 it was still just under 60%.

The reality was that opposing teams were able to work out what Bazball was and how to counter it. Over time the initial advantage declined, even allowing for occasional tweaks in the method.

The departure of Ben Stokes is likely linked to the dysfunctional nature of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) although it’s a struggle to find a sports administration at the top level of sports that does work particularly well. But underlining this is the reality that the Bazball system, which can provide exciting cricket at best, is no longer one that delivers sustained success.

Stokes departure should provoke the end for McCullum and Bazball and perhaps (less likely) changes at higher levels in the ECB. The next Home Test series against Pakistan starts on August 19^th…..

As Gramsci (someone else who was not a cricket fan) noted in his Prison Notebooks, ‘the old is dying, but the new cannot be born..’