Gentlemen & Players: The Death of Amateurism in Cricket - Couverture rigide

Williams, Charles

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0297864521 ISBN 13 : 9780297864523

Editeur : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2012

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

Amateurs versus professionals - a social history and memoir of English cricket from 1953 to 1963.

The inaugural Gentlemen v. Players first-class cricket match was played in 1806, subsequently becoming an annual fixture at Lord's between teams consisting of amateurs (the Gentlemen) and professionals (the Players). The key difference between the amateur and the professional, however, was much more than the obvious one of remuneration. The division was shaped by English class structure, the amateur, who received expenses, being perceived as occupying a higher station in life than the wage-earning professional. The great Yorkshire player Len Hutton, for example, was told he would have to go amateur if he wanted to captain England.

GENTLEMEN & PLAYERS focuses on the final ten years of amateurism and the Gentlemen v. Players fixture, starting with Charles Williams' own presence in the (amateur) Oxbridge teams that included future England captains such as Peter May, Colin Cowdrey and M.J.K. Smith, and concluding with the abolition of amateurism in 1962 when all first-class players became professional. The amateur innings was duly declared closed.

Charles Williams, the author of a richly acclaimed biography of Donald Bradman, has penned a vivid social-history-cum-memoir that reveals an attempt to recreate a Golden Age in post-war Britain, one whose expiry exactly coincided with the beginnings of top-class one-day cricket and a cricket revolution.

Quatrième de couverture :

The inaugural Gentlemen v. Players first-class cricket match was played in 1806, subsequently becoming an annual fixture at Lord's between teams consisting of amateurs (the Gentlemen) and professionals (the Players). The key difference between the amateur and the professional, however, was much more than the obvious one of remuneration and went to the very heart of English class structure. The great Yorkshire player, Len Hutton, for example, was told he would have to go amateur if he wanted to captain England.

Gentlemen and Players focuses on the final ten years of amateurism, starting with Charles Williams' own presence in the (amateur) Oxbridge teams that included future England captains such as Peter May, Colin Cowdrey and M.J.K. Smith and concluding with the abolition of amateurism in 1962 when all first-class players became professional. The amateur innings was duly declared closed and a cricketing revolution was underway.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• Date d'édition: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0297864521
• ISBN 13: 9780297864523
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 224