Re: CC Stats - Week 3

In article <0UvSpGIUhPjEFwkD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Robert Henderson <philip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The funding always has strings, whether it be the sponsor's name on a
ground or the enhanced social prestige of an aristocrat. RH
You merely reveal ignorance of the aristocracy and of
the feudal sense of duty that many, perhaps most, felt [...].
[...] Your noblesse oblige fantasy version of English
aristocracy is particularly funny. A few facts to spoil it. First, most
of the English nobility have always behaved in a way which showed that
their sense of duty was at best deficient and at worst missing.

Possibly; which is why I referred to "many, perhaps most".
Short of a detailed survey, we're not going to establish even an
approximate fraction. But I know of plenty of examples of entirely
altruistic sponsorship by "nobs". That some of their number instead
behaved very badly is equally beyond doubt. The important point, as
far as this debate is concerned, is merely the switch, which pretty
much took place between WW1 and WW2, from sponsorship by the local
gentry to sponsorship by local business. The former, by and large,
simply dipped their hands in their pockets; the latter, equally
by and large, expect publicity.

They
played the noblesse oblige game just enough to keep rebellion at bay.
Second, and most importantly, the vast majority of peers in the early
years of the last century were of recent creation, mainly politicians,
industrialists and commercial folk - think of "The Beerage".

Yes; so?

They had no
inbuilt sense of duty to the local community. rH

*They* may not have. But they sent their sons to the public
schools and to Oxbridge. From Arnold's time to the 1960s, that sort
of education was primarily intended to equip people with exactly
that "sense of duty". Sadly, by *your* time, only a few years later,
attitudes had changed, probably irrevocably. My year was the very
last that joined the Cadet Force *expecting* to have to do National
Service. My time at university saw the rise of "TW3" satire and the
fall of "Wind of Change" Macmillan. My contemporaries became civil
servants, judges, teachers, clergy, doctors; within a few years, the
Dave Spart tendency had altered education, and accountancy/banking
were sucking graduates away from "service" and into "making money".

When exactly are you claiming Test match receipt distribution overtook
overall gate and membership income.? RH
I'm not. [...]
I see, no proof to support your argument. RH

Why do you claim the exact year matters? By 1965 or so, the
Test handouts were around twice [at least for Notts] the gate and
membership income. In 1950 or so it was the other way around. As
gates dropped by 55% and Test handouts increased, there must have
been a period between when they were comparable. So what? Have you
lost the plot again?

Why are you claiming it was wrong for the counties to seek to
increase their own income? And do you have any proposal other than
"marketing" [which, as I pointed out, would certainly not have
preserved the county game as it existed around 1950] by which the
counties could have achieved this?

The mentality changed when everyone became a pro.

Yes; it made the whole system by which cricketers were paid
fairer. And probably more important the system by which they became
captain.

It also made cricket
far more expensive to run. RH

Really? Switching payments for one or two players per county
from below the table to above made a significant difference? Since
the Mays and the Cowdreys were not being forced to accept the money
on offer, what does that tell you? Perhaps all those players weren't
playing strictly for love of the game after all?

The amateur as captain was not there simply because of his class but
because it was thought that being an amateur he would play the game for
its own sake and not for the money. RH

Right. And "therefore" that professional captains could not
play the game "properly". It was nonsense in 1860, it was utter and
total nonsense by 1960.

The amateur ethos generally was a valuable thing. RH

No doubt. In a winning side. Losing sides soon found that
the amateur ethos took second place to turning results around. And
it's only a few paragraphs back that you were claiming that the
amateur ["Dulwich and Cambridge, so cannot be paid to play"] ethos
was a sham designed merely to stave off revolution. But stringing
a logical argument together was never one of your strong points.

[helmets:]
More snivelling safety first nonsense. RH

Still in a minority of one, then.

--
Andy Walker, School of MathSci., Univ. of Nott'm, UK.
anw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.

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