The Gentlemen v Players game was a first-class cricket match that was generally played on an annual basis between one team consisting of amateurs (the Gentlemen) and one of professionals (the Players). The first two games took place in 1806 but the fixture was not revived until 1819. It was more or less annual thereafter till 1962 and there were usually two or more games each season. After 1962, the concept of amateurism was abolished and so all first-class players became, in theory at least, professional.
Read more about Gentlemen V Players: History
Famous quotes containing the words gentlemen and/or players:
“Most men would feel shame if caught preparing with their own hands precisely such a dinner, whether of animal or vegetable food, as is every day prepared for them by others. Yet till this is otherwise we are not civilized, and, if gentlemen and ladies, are not true men and women. This certainly suggests what change is to be made.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“People stress the violence. That’s the smallest part of it. Football is brutal only from a distance. In the middle of it there’s a calm, a tranquility. The players accept pain. There’s a sense of order even at the end of a running play with bodies stewn everywhere. When the systems interlock, there’s a satisfaction to the game that can’t be duplicated. There’s a harmony.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)