“GENTLEMEN" IN THE CRICKET FIELD.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3134, 11 September 1922, Page 2

“GENTLEMEN" IN THE CRICKET FIELD.

(Isy an Okl Oxford ‘‘Hint*.’') Tinier the Feudal system the invidicjus distinction between “Gentlemen” and “Players” might liave been defended. To-day there is really no reason to suppose that the “Gentlemen” cannot play or that the “[’layers” are not gentlemen. So absurd is the anomaly that only a Gilbert and Sullivan opera could do justice to the spectacle ut a Father (professional) accompanying his son (amateur) to the county ground, where the pair are compelled to separate to their respective pavilions. I do not suggest that the professionals object to this segregation; that they object to the placard' “Players” as opposed to ‘‘Gentlemen” is obvious when we recollect an incident of last month when three county “players” replaced the notice of one on which ■hey had inscribed the word “Navvies.” It is certainly absurd to read in Wisdeu’s Almanack of the record of “.Mr” IT W. (,)uait'e in the same list as that ol W. G. ()naife (with the .Mr) when we realise that the latter is not only the senior, but the father of the former. There is an easy way out. (ail every one “Air”—-call nobody “Air”. Get every man have his initials—let nobody have any initials. The third is probably the most feasible. I he advantages of this scheme would he thoroughly English, Experts (and every one is an expert about cricket) would know who were professionals and who were amateurs, hut no longer would any stigma attach itself to a. man who was compelled' to play cricket lor money. \o man can afford' to give np Ins leisure as in the old happy days before Ihe war: very few men an* 'so financially free as to he a hie to go through a whole season without payment. Consequently the number of “Gentlemen” (other than schoolboys and undergraduates who play only for counties in vacation) is dwindling rapidly. County cricket suffers lo a quite incredible extent by the absence ol some ol the best sportsmen in the land, who dare not incur Ihe imaginary social stigma of becoming professionals. and so retire from the game altogether. Some compromise by taking posts as games masters at famous public schools, for which they gel paid, but somehow they preserve the status of “amateur.” It is all very queer. Every county ought to play its first, that is. its best, eleven, irrespective of the number of amateurs or professionals available. In existing conditions there are several counties where trial after trial is given to “Gentlemen” who are not worth a place in any good 1 club side, all because they have the luck to have money. The adoption ol my suggestion would mean that all the members of county elevens would' mingle together freely, change in the same pavilion, and* generally lie on the same terms as the* members of any town club. Amateurs would still command the services of professionals just as any buyer can command* the services of the seller. I*ut there would he complete camaraderie, the more complete because it would at last bo realised that in 1))22 Ihe distinction between amateur and professional is not a distinction of social standing, not the distinction between a gentleman and a player, but merely that between a man who can afford to play his favorite game as a hobby andl the man who can only afford to do so if he is paid for it. As things now stand a “Gentleman'' is a sportsman with money. and a “I’layer” is a sportsman without any.