A Game Sustained

149 autumn the Yorkshire captain, D.C.F.Burton, was pictured in one newspaper in a cricket sweater, moving milk churns on Paddington station in London. Concerns about professionalism Such events were another reminder that cricket could not be insulated from developing social and economic tensions in the country and this was also seen in the debate about professionalism. The league cricket played in Bradford during the Great War had been unique in terms of the number and strength of the professional players involved. The end of the war and the announcement that county cricket would restart presented the first challenge to these arrangements. While many of the best professionals returned to the county competition, there was a growing discussion in 1919 as to why some were instead deserting it for league cricket. Crowther Charlesworth, the Warwickshire professional between 1898 and 1921 who had appeared in the Bradford League during the war, explained that, like most human beings, professional cricketers were influenced by financial considerations and were out to make the most from their skills. League cricket was worth more financially to players than county cricket but, Charlesworth argued, it was also an easier life involving just Saturday (and occasional mid-week) matches and some evening work in the nets. He felt that league players were also more popular with the crowds and therefore were rewarded better with collections. In addition, they had lots of spare time to pursue other business interests. Despite this, he justified his own return to county cricket in 1919 on the grounds that he disliked playing against the clock and wanted to enjoy the game ‘as it should be played’. He lamented that there was no time in league cricket for the ‘finer points of the game’. The tensions around professionalism grew during 1919. In May, the Bradford League recommended a standard form of legal agreement be drawn up between clubs and their professionals to give the League committee more authority over the players, in addition to that enjoyed by their club, A wonderful relief: 1919