Alex Miller: BazBall to DazBall? Sheffield Wednesday are cultivating their own version of English cricket’s joyride

Anyone been watching the cricket?

If not; here’s a quick summary of what’s gone on with England’s Test team in the last few weeks.

Basically, they were horrible. Miserable in performance and in spirit. Captain Joe Root – you may have heard of him – was brilliant but the rest were dire. Nobody looked like they wanted to be there and they lost lots and lots of cricket matches.

It was difficult to watch and social media discussions about the team were pretty bitter.

And then came the change. Root, for all his excellence, was out as skipper, the job having started to eat him from the inside. In came Ben Stokes, with Kiwi legend Brendon McCullum in as coach to impart what has been branded ‘BazBall’ – a sweeter, more entertaining, open and care-free style of cricket.

And what happened? The culture shifted. They smashed it to all parts. They won four on the spin. And, though whisper it quietly, they might just have set about changing Test cricket forever.

What on earth does this have to do with a mad little football club called Sheffield Wednesday, seven signings and a promotion ambition? I literally don’t know.

But there is a blueprint for change there that Darren Moore and co can follow, a lurch to a different culture that began last season. And a fearlessness those of us outside of the inner sanctum can embrace.

There’s a notion among some that when they get to a certain level, sportspeople can deal with any environment or culture. And the very best ones, the non-mortal Joe Roots of this world, probably can.

But that’s largely nonsense for the likes of Sheffield Wednesday, whose changing room culture was toxic not too long ago (Monk et al, 2020) and results showed. The feeling around the club showed.

Fans exchanged desperate, angry conversations with players outside grounds and at boardroom level, the club was a hot mess. Players were taking home big wages they barely deserved years earlier. In terms of culture, Sheffield Wednesday’s was more than a little whiffy.

Is Darren Moore Wednesday’s McCullum? In truth he probably had a bigger job on and it’s taken a lot longer than a Test series to steer things in the right direction. They come at leadership from different angles but in the main part, they seem to share an ability to have players buy in to what they want to do.

With Barry Bannan playing Ben Stokes in this frankly ludicrous effort at professional sportswriting, the Owls have a remarkable talent capable of turning matches on their own, a popular figure who wears his heart on his sleeve and clearly loves the team he is representing.

The toxicity Monk spoke of a handful of times as he attempted to turn the tide at Wednesday appears to have been largely cleansed.

None of it matters unless they get results on the board early of course, that optimism can sink away faster than a first-ball duck at a club like Wednesday, but it’s encouraging.

Time for DazBall? Maybe. Let’s just hope Wednesday can hit League One for six this season.