PROFESSIONALISM IN GAMES. F OR the second time in the present
season the athletic- world has been stirred to its depths. The two disturbances have come, curiously enough, from opposite poles. The first, as our readers will remember, was due to• the action of the captain of the Cambridge team in the inter-University cricket match. Brothers in blood and in cricketing renown were riven asunder by the question whether Mr. Mitchell was justified in directing his bowler to send down some "no-balls " in order to prevent Oxford from " following on." But now it is the conduct of certain professionals which has given rise to excitement of the keenest kind, and to lamentations upon the supposed evidences of decadence in the national game. What did those professionals do ? Five of them, of whom four- Lohmann, Richardson, Abel, and Hayward—are Surrey players, and of whom the fifth, Gunn, hails from Notts, having been selected by the Surrey County Committee, who were in charge of the arrangements, toplay in the final match. of the season between England and Australia, asked, in a. joint-note, for a fee of £20 each for so playing. In the two- previous inter-Imperial matches of the year, which were- played on the grounds of the Marylebone and the Lancashire Cricket Clubs respectively, a fee of £10, with expenses, had been paid to and accepted by the professional players engaged. The Surrey Committee, after receiving; the application for enhanced pay, appear to have repeated, in the case of their own four players at any rate, their invitation to play in the great match, but to have specified the lower scale of pay. The four men refused to play on those terms, whereupon the Committee filled up all the men's places, and issued on Saturday morning last a fresh list of the England eleven against the Australians. Their 41 firm attitude " was rewarded by a large measure of success, for on Saturday evening all their own four recalcitrant players, except Lohmann, who has since apologised, " placed themselves unreservedly in the hands of the Surrey Committee," whereupon that august body, its honour saved, restored the penitents to their places.
To the hotly-debated question, which side was in the right before the three players surrendered, we are inclined to answer "both." Much has been written about the want of patriotism shown by the players in haggling over wages for playing in a match of national importance, and in " putting on the screw " when the side had practically been made up. If, it has been said, the question had been raised earner in the season, before the elevens had 'been chosen for the matches against Australia, there would have been much to be said for meeting in a liberal fashion the players' desire for an enhanced scale of re- Anuneration on the occasion of those matches. On the one hand, the takings at such matches are very large in- deed, and on the other hand, the nervous strain to which • each individual player is subjected in contests which, in -a very literal sense, are watched by the whole country and even by the whole Empire, is unquestionably much greater than that involved in ordinary first-class county -matches. It is certainly not on the face of it unreason- able that those who submit to the extra strain should have some more substantial share in the extra receipts. So much is allowed by many people who at the same time consider that Were was something "unsportsmanlike" in -the attempt of the players whose names have been given to drive a bargain within a few days of the last and -decisive inter-Imperial match of the season, and par- ticularly in the conduct of those of the Surrey professionals who then refused to play for their own club at the rate of pay which they had accepted on the Lancashire ground. We are unable to see any point in these complaints. The whole body of cricket professionals, or that very limited section of them from which selections for the matches with Australia were likely to be made, may indeed have been foolish and unenterprising in failing to make some such representation as has been just suggested early in the season. But what reason was there why any or all of the men who had been chosen to play in the deciding match, which, being looked forward to with extraordinary interest, was certain to attract an enormous " gate," should not seek to make the best terms they could for that occasion ? They are working men or small shopkeepers, whose devotion of their summer months to cricket is pretty certain both to render intermittent and precarious their earnings in any occupation during the remaining part of their cricket years and also to greatly curtail, if not -destroy, their prospects of earning a comfortable livelihood for themselves and their wives and families after their -cricket years are over. It is therefore a matter of very real importance to them to be able to save a considerable sum on Abe takings of each year's cricket, and may it not fairly be held that their duty in that regard towards their families and towards the maintenance of their own independence in old age overrides any claim which can be put for- ward, or conjured up, on behalf of the prestige of one ..part of the Empire against another, or on that of their county club ? In effect, it is really futile to apply such a word as " unsportsmanlike " to the action of certain players in connection with the recent match. To them and their class cricket is a trade—an honourable and attractive trade, if you will, but still a trade—in which they are justified in making, and are even bound to make, as much as they can, so long as they act squarely and -above-board, which was certainly done by Abel and his friends in regard to the late match. On the other hand, it may quite well be the fact that from the point of view of public cricket pure and simple, the Committee of the Surrey Club were justified in making the stand they did against the players. It might, no doubt, be very awkward indeed for county or any other cricket clubs if a precedent were set of the successful combination of players to obtain .a higher rate of pay for any particular match. The same kind of manceuvre, it may be argued, might be tried in connection with some match on which the issue of the county championship hung, and might be defended by similar arguments, and in such a case the County Com- mittee concerned would not be able, as the Surrey )ommittee were able the other day, to fill up their eleven with men all but, if not quite, as good as those who declined to play. An element of uncertainty would thus be introduced into the regular system of first-class cricket contests which would be fatal to its continuance on its present footing. And, therefore, the Surrey Committee may be held to have acted representatively, and in a spirit deserving cordial recognition from all amateur cricketers, in taking the high line which they adopted so successfully in opposition to Abel and his friends.
The truth, indeed, is that beyond a certain point, at any rate, the amateur and professional elements are essentially conflicting. Up to a certain point not only is there no such conflict, but the two elements work in perfect har- mony, and reinforce one another. Thus the standard of technical excellence in any game in which skill plays a predominant part is sure to be raised by the growth, within limits, of the professional element. The standard of bowling in cricket would undoubtedly never have reached its present height had it not been for the steady labour of professionals in practice and in precept ; and with the rise in the level of bowling excellence, that of batting and fielding has also risen ; so that it may be truly said that the art of cricket as we now know it has been very largely built up by professionals. Again, while it is certainly to be deplored that the element of pro- fessionalism has been allowed to creep into Rugby football, as played in the North, in a surreptitious and unrecognised manner, it will hardly be denied that in respect of scientific, and even of artistic, quality the general level of play is higher in that region than it was ten years ago, or that it is higher there than in parts of the country where the game is made less of a business. The recognition of this fact provides some justification for the movement in favour of starting a group of clubs in which, contrary to the Rugby Union rules, professionalism shall be frankly recognised. That certainly would be a much more satisfactory state of things than a system under which professionalism cannot apparently be stamped out, and even flourishes in defiance of regulations. And, obviously, if that element is once clearly recognised in Rugby football, the possibility of strikes, ca something like them, would have to be reckoned with. nd even if, as is quite possible, the close co-operation " different clubs should reduce that danger to a min um, there would still be something inferior in what may be called the moral atmosphere of the game when played mainly or largely for a fee (though well earned), as compared with that of the game played merely for its own keen delights and the glory of victory. There is, in a word, both gain and loss in connection with professionalism in any game. The game gains technically, but the element of chivalry which attaches to sport is apt to be impaired.
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