“GENTLEMEN AND PLAYERS.”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19802, 29 May 1926, Page 10

“GENTLEMEN AND PLAYERS.”

Thebe will be pretty general agreement, at least at this end of the world, that the movement for the elimination of class distinctions in cricket is of a reasonable character. The origins of the game belong to a period of social conditions very different from those which obtain at the present time. The pastime in England has always been connected with an aristocratic quality. On the village greens the plebeian player* were supported by high-born patrons, and when a governing body was required the M.C.C. was founded on exclusive principles which have not varied in any material degree. To this day a professional is ineligible for membership of the dominating club, and. there has been a continuance of many rules of exclusive etiquette out of harmony with the spirit of democratic progress. Separate gates and dressing rooms and luncheon rooms for amateurs and professionals represent an obsolete state of manners. No doubt there was a time when the habits of some of the paid cricketers were marked by a roughness which warranted a social division, but that time has passed. A London newspaper, referring to the decision that amateurs and professionals shall share a common room in Test matches, expresses a hope that this will be the beginning of thf end of the old invidious boundary marks. “The surprising thing is that this form of snobbery—so foreign altogether to our sporting spirit—should have persisted’ so long. Lord Hawke may pray to Heaven that he will never see the day when a professional captains England, but to all cricket lovers the play is the thing, and the stupid custom which segregated Hobbs and ether famous players from their gentlemen comrades has long enough been a matter for shamefaced excuse.” These remarks are strongly worded, but we are not disposed to say that they overstate the position. It may be some time before the timehonoured name of the annual “Gentlemen v. Players” matches at Lord’s and the Oval is changed, for the title ia steeped in the traditional sentiment of generations. Perhaps it will be the last survival of the early distinctions; but it, too, will reach its finale.