SPOTLIGHT Shape Shifters Daniel Gallan Share Tweet

If any national federation has aspirations of lifting a World Cup or donning the whites in an official Test, they must adhere to the strict codes that govern the sport. ©Getty

On the Trobriand islands, an archipelago off the coast of New Guinea, indigenous inhabitants play a unique brand of cricket. First introduced by Christian missionaries in the early 1900s as a tool for colonisation, this version includes a few unusual additions.

Teams of up to 50 use a modified bat and ball that is blessed by a spiritual leader before the start of play. Six runs are awarded only if the ball is lost or struck over a tree. The dismissal of a batsman is followed by choreographed dances and chants that emphasise the bowling side's prowess and often include sexual innuendos. 'Magic' is used by players and spectators to provide a competitive advantage (though the home side always wins).

In the 1975 film, Trobriand Cricket: An Ingenious Response to Colonialism,anthropologists Gary Kildea and Jerry Leach document this fascinating hybrid of gentlemanly sport with mock warfare. Though instantly recognised as cricket, the Trobriand way of playing has escaped its English mould to become something entirely new.

Today, the International Cricket Council recognises 125 countries that play cricket the way the early Bible and bat-carrying missionaries intended. If any national federation has aspirations of lifting a World Cup or donning the whites in an official Test, they must adhere to the strict codes that govern the sport.

In this stringent environment is there any room for cultural variation? Has the act of bowling, hitting and catching a ball become homogeneous around the globe? Not according to former Zimbabwe fast bowler Heath Streak.

"I believe there are certain ways that teams play that are instantly recognisable and are unique to them," says Streak, who picked up 455 international wickets before moving into coaching. "These aren't set in stone though. Culture is a fluid thing that is always changing but I would argue that there are differences between the way teams play that are impacted by where they come from."

The obvious variable impacting this difference between sides is geographic location. English bowlers are stereotypically high quality swing bowlers as a result of honing their skills in conditions that favour that craft. South African batters are more adept than most at handling short pitched bowling thanks to lively wickets found in Johannesburg and Pretoria.

The second variable is harder to quantify but for Streak it is just as significant: "I do believe that the cultural differences between countries influence how they play their cricket," he says. "Look at the Aussies under Steve Waugh or the Proteas under Hansie Cronje. These teams played in the image of their captains and the captains embodied a particular part of their nations' identities. This evolves over time but from my experience it is real."

Streak's experience includes two years as Bangladesh's bowling coach in the lead-up to the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Tasked with the job of revamping the Tigers' seam attack, he found that there was a vital ingredient missing from the players he worked with.

"I had to instill a bit of that fast bowler menace that the guys didn't quite have over there," Streak says. "All the best fast bowlers in history have possessed that internal fire. You'll often find that these players grew up in societies that encourage that aggression in their sport. They would have been coached and captained by people moulded in these environments. That wasn't as prevalent in Bangladesh when I was there."

Pacers like Taskin Ahmed and Ruben Hossain came to prominence to provide Bangladesh with an extra means of attack ©Getty

Though there were some technical flaws that Streak had to iron out, his biggest challenge was attempting to rewire the players' attitude when it came to fast bowling. To do this, Streak had to think outside the box.

"Poverty is a major issue over there and every single player who represents Bangladesh is visibly grateful for the opportunities they have," Streak explains. "They are so desperate to hold on to the positions they find themselves in so I tried to tap in to that when motivating the bowlers to push themselves further than they'd gone before."

Using the carrots and sticks of Bangladeshi culture, Streak refined his approach to harness the raw potential within the camp. Under his tutelage, seamers such as Taskin Ahmed and Ruben Hossain came to prominence and provided Bangladesh with an extra means of attack.

At the 2015 global showpiece, the side advanced beyond the group stage ahead of England with seam accounting for 24 of their 38 tournament wickets. Streak's tenure also coincided with ODI series wins against South Africa, Pakistan and India as well as improved performances in white.

But development has stagnated since Streak's departure in 2016. The Tigers have been toothless outside of Asia - losing all six of their recent Test matches in New Zealand, South Africa and the Caribbean. Despite the presence of Courtney Walsh as bowling coach, their on-field identity is still overwhelmingly defined by spin bowling.

This contrasts with the recent rise of Indian seamers. Where Bangladesh has regressed in this regard, their behemoth neighbours have reinvented themselves with a pace battery that has gone toe to toe with those of South Africa and England and will be confident ahead of their trip to Australia later this year.

Where Streak was just one man trying to change an entire nation's cricket culture, India has been fortunate to have multiple sources all imparting minor alterations across the land at the same time. Thanks to the Indian Premier League and its promise of riches, the world's best players and coaches have descended on India and rubbed shoulders with a generation of malleable youngsters.

For 10 years, Indian seamers have had the opportunity to share a dressing room with the likes of Brett Lee, Dale Steyn and Lasith Malinga. During net sessions and in high pressure match situations, they have bowled to Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and Brendon McCullum.

India, against the norm, now boast of an envious pace attack ©BCCI

According to Thirumalai 'TA' Sekhar, president of cricket operations at Mumbai Indians and a former fast bowler himself, the IPL has been a key contributor to the quality of seamers at Virat Kohli's disposal.

"T20 is a game for the innovators and if you don't know how to innovate, you can't be successful," says Sekhar, who previously worked as the director of cricket at Delhi Daredevils. "Against the best batsmen you have to be thinking constantly and in that environment young players with talent can explode and become superstars across all formats."

Sekhar played just two Tests and 4 ODIs for India in the 1980s and was one of the fastest bowlers his country produced at the time. A lack of quality coaching, and what he calls 'politics', curtailed his career as a player but he has made his name as a coach.

He was hand picked to be Dennis Lillee's right hand man at the start of the MRF Pace Foundation in 1987 and is a key figure in the renowned academy's narrative. Alumni include Javagal Srinath, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth but there were initial cultural roadblocks that needed to be navigated.

"When we first opened our doors India had no culture of pace bowling even though Kapil Dev was an icon," Sekher explains. "There was a perception that Indians were not meant to bowl fast. That we should just stick to spin. We encountered hostility from age group and state coaches who refused to let their boys join our academy and threatened them. The BCCI only recognised us in 2012. It was a frustrating journey."

Today, with Glenn McGrath acting as director since 2012, the foundation is regarded as a premier destination for the world's best quicks. Though Sekhar speaks with immense pride in the legacy of the foundation, he understands its place in the development of fast bowling in India.

"The foundation will always be a haven for fast bowlers but it is not the end point in this story," he says. "India's evolution started with Kapil Dev who proved Indians could bowl fast. Then the foundation provided the tools to sharpen the raw materials. But it was the IPL that changed the mindset of ordinary Indian fans as it gave young guys opportunities on a big stage where they have flourished. The IPL has catapulted our fast bowling to another level."

This speaks to the importance of hosting a T20 franchise competition - and the big names that follow - in the evolution of a national side's identity. As such, there is more at stake than financial rewards and global prestige when the Mzansi Super League - a six-team T20 tournament - launches in South Africa this month.

"There is no telling how some of our less experienced players will benefit from playing with and against some of the world's most recognisable names," says former Proteas coach Russell Domingo, who now works with the 'A' side. "[Hosting a major T20 league] is perhaps one area where some of our rivals have had an advantage over us."

The IPL has been a massive learning ground for cricketers from around the world ©BCCI

Since the launch of the IPL, and other T20 competitions around the world, a gap has emerged between South African cricketers who have gained access to the travelling circus and those who have not.

"Our young spinners have missed out the most," Domingo says. "Because of our conditions - which aren't helpful to spinners - we don't have the ingrained culture of spin that Asian teams have. Captains and coaches don't have that natural feel when it comes to field settings and strategies that get the most out of spinners."

In the absence of a league with enough pulling power to bring in external knowledge, Cricket South Africa has been forced to search for it elsewhere. From 2012, a select group of spinners, batsmen and wicketkeepers have attended annual spin camps on the subcontinent. With the help of local coaches, South African spinners immerse themselves in a foreign cricket culture.

"It's about seeing what's in our cultural blindspots," Domingo says, pointing to the improved performances of Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi as proof that the spin camps are working. "If you don't grow up with that culture you have to seek out the help of someone who has."

But what of the unforeseen repercussions of a cultural identity shift? Newton stated that every action has a reaction. Do those rules apply here?

When Trevor Bayliss was appointed England coach, the ODI side was a mess. Dumped out of the 2015 World Cup at the group stage, the Three Lions' approach to batting was painfully outdated and over reliant on a slow and steady build-up to a crescendo that didn't always come.

Bayliss, alongside his deputy Paul Farbrace and captain Eoin Morgan, has since taken the leash off England's big hitters, who have propelled their side to the top of the ODI rankings.

Since the last World Cup, no other team has a better strike rate over 50 overs than England's 99.58. They have reached 300 on 23 occasions from just 77 matches, including three scores north of 400 and a high of 481 against Australia in June. Only South Africa (once) have passed 400 in this time.

The penchant for attacking cricket has led to England's batting failures in the longer format ©Getty

Yet this deluge of runs against the white ball has had an unintended consequence in Test cricket. Batting collapses rife with poorly selected shots and visible spells of panic have become a prevailing feature of the Test team.

Between 1938 and 2016, England did not suffer the indignity of being bowled out in a single session. Since 2016, this has occurred three times. In this time they have been at least four wickets down before reaching 100 in 33 of their 64 Test innings. For former batsman and now coach Graham Thorpe, some of the batting issues in the long format have come as a result of success in the shorter versions.

"We've made such a concerted effort to encourage our players to express themselves no matter what and to back their hitting abilities that we've perhaps neglected some of the skills needed to be a success in Test cricket," Thorpe says. "Skills like patience, like doing the hard work, like staying calm; these aren't as common in the younger guys coming through."

Alongside Mark Ramprakash, Thorpe serves as his country's national batting coach, alternating between the Test and one-day teams. He argues that all Test-playing nations are undergoing similar issues. He points to the prominence of T20 cricket and the impact it is having on the way more and more batsmen opt to hit themselves out of a hole rather than knuckle down and graft during tough spells. However, he concedes that England's problems are greater than most.

"We've gone through the greatest revolution in the way we bat in limited overs cricket. It is difficult adjusting to the demands of the different formats, particularly when you've done so well batting a certain way. Our challenge next year will be shifting from the World Cup to the Ashes.

"But we have some excellent players and we saw how traditionally aggressive batters like Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler adapted when they needed to. It's about mindset and there's no reason why we can't sort this out. Our culture is flexible and positive and we're able to shift gears when needed."

This could be easier said than done. Culture may be fluid but it takes a while to wash off once it has seeped in.

One of the joys of the sport, of any sport, lies in the on-field cultural nuances that exist between nations. Caribbean flair, Aussie grit, South African all-rounders, English and Pakistan swing, Indian and Sri Lankan wrists; the armchair cricket anthropologist has long been able draw on stereotypes that had a degree of truth to them.

But cricket is not immune to the effects of globalisation. T20 competitions around the world have created a melting pot of ideas where opponents and team-mates intermingle in a constant state of flux. In a generation, there may be no distinguishing national cricketing identity. Unless of course your side plays the game the Trobriand way.