On 11 September 1962, the first-class English cricket season came to an end, as was then customary, in the seaside town of Scarborough. As was also customary, the match was between the amateur Gentlemen and the professional Players, a contest that, with few interruptions, had been played since 1806 at least once (usually in high summer at Lord’s, the game’s London headquarters) and often twice a year. The Times correspondent reported that the Players hit the winning runs as rain fell. “Summer passes and time, the inexorable umpire, removes the bails,” he concluded unoriginally.
But the “inexorable umpire” was not just closing a season: though nobody knew it then, cricket’s rulers would abolish the amateur-professional distinction, a near-perfect embodiment of the English class system, later that year. The Gentlemen were amateurs in name only; many earned more than professionals from expenses and sinecures in county club offices. What they nearly all had in common, however, was a public school and Oxbridge education. “Amateur” was a label denoting breeding and class status. “Players” used separate and inferior dressing rooms, ate separate and inferior meals, stayed in separate and inferior hotels, even walked on to the field of play from separate gates. A professional was rarely thought capable of captaining his county team. In 1962, 13 of the 17 counties were still led by “Gentlemen”, though, in many cases, their cricketing skills were mediocre at best. Only one professional had ever led the England Test team.
Content from our partners
