It was Andrew Miller who coined the B word. In a Cricinfo podcast on May 24, 2022, Miller spoke about the shift in mindset that England’s new red-ball coach, Brendon “Baz” McCullum, would bring. “It will be full-out total cricket and Bazball,” he said. “Bring it on.” The word caught
on, to McCullum’s dismay. By this summer there was even an editorial in the Church Times asking if a Bazball approach to worship could boost congregations.
Bazball meant playing without fear and trusting the cricketers to make decisions. A Test team that seemed to have been scared into paralysis found fresh confidence and learnt to enjoy playing again. The freedom that their coach and captain encouraged bred success. Meanwhile, the one-day side have gone the other way under different leadership. “Mottball” sounds rather close to mothball.
The renaissance in England’s Test side is well told in a new book, Bazball, by Lawrence Booth and Nick Hoult. One thing that stands out is how assertiveness doesn’t have to lead to arrogance, an example set by the captain. In the same month that McCullum was appointed, Ben Stokes struck 34 in an over for Durham against Worcestershire, hitting Josh Baker, an 18-year-old left-arm spinner, for five sixes and a one-bounce four on his way to 161 off 88 balls.
That night, Baker broke down at his parents’ home, after getting a pasting on social media, when a WhatsApp message came from an unknown number. “Hey Josh, Ben Stokes here,” it said. “Please don’t let today define the rest of your season.”
The England captain went on to criticise keyboard warriors, told the teenager that he would have
taken on the experienced Nathan Lyon in the same way and said he shouldn’t take it personally. “You’ve got serious potential,” Stokes said, ending by reminding Baker that he had once conceded four
successive sixes to lose a World Twenty20 final.
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As Booth and Hoult write: “Whatever qualities Stokes might have lacked when he became captain, empathy was not among them”. Or as Rob Key, the England managing director, put it: “England needed him not for the player he was, but the way he was as a person.” Perhaps we have been
using the wrong B word. Choosing to fight hard, with adventure, yet always respect your opponents is surely Benball.
How fortune favoured last of the Busby Babes
The death of Sir Bobby Charlton leaves Sir Geoff Hurst as the last survivor of the 1966 World Cup side. Charlton was also the penultimate “Busby Babe” to die. Only Jeff Whitefoot, 89, remains. One of many boys spotted and nurtured by Matt Busby in the 1940s and 1950s, Whitefoot worked on the switchboard at Old Trafford as a trainee and was Manchester United’s youngest league debutant at 16 years and 105 days.
He played eight seasons as a wing half from 1949, winning two titles, but in 1957, finding opportunities drying up, Whitefoot asked Busby for a transfer and dropped down a division to Grimsby Town. The decision saved his career: in 1959 he won the FA Cup with Nottingham Forest. It may also have saved his life. Two months after leaving, eight of his former team-mates died in the Munich air disaster. How
fortunate his lapse in form had been.
Lacrosse strikes a blow for diversity
I wrote last week about how adding cricket to the Olympics will give a medal chance to countries such as India, who have a poor Games record. Squash will do the same since Egypt, who now dominate the sport, have won only eight Olympic golds. At first look, lacrosse, another new entry, does less for diversity. Twenty of the 25 men’s and women’s world titles have been won by the United States.
However, one of the best teams internationally, winning a world bronze this year, is the Haudenosaunee, a Native American side who represent the Iroquois confederacy. There are calls for them to be allowed to compete at the Olympics despite not being a country. This happened in
1904 when a team of Mohawks with names like Almighty Voice and Snake Eater competed as a second Canada team. It would be creative to repeat this: after all, their people invented the sport.
Picture of the week
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Big head, small car: a buggy designed in the style of Sergio Pérez’s race helmet was seen driving around Mexico City in the lead up to this weekend’s grand prix. The Red Bull driver has never won his home race but was third in the past two years. His team-mate, Max Verstappen, is going for a fifth win.
