Cricket Witness No 1 - Class Peace

141 First-Class Fragility The Herculean task of transforming eighteen sacred temples into an economic proposition that attracts sufficient customers both to pay for itself at least in large part and fulfill its functions as the conduit to international stardom appears to be beyond the scale of human action. It would be wrong to apportion blame. Even those who shuddered at the thought of cricket being soiled by overmuch stress on commercialisation have an appeal, in that they honestly believed in the purity and dignity of cricket. It is a view that seems quite attractive compared with money- grubbing. The old-time cricket professionals may thereby have been badly treated with condescension and occasionally contempt but we should be wary of making judgements solely by reference to modern standards. By the standards of their times the working class pros were handled with reasonable thoughtfulness. Indeed, cricketing leaders like Lord Hawke, Lord Harris and, on his more grown-up days, W.G.Grace endeavoured to show a kindly respect to their paid colleagues. Equally, the low cost of entry for county and Test cricket enabled working class support to burgeon. It is true that higher prices may have led to lower revenue, as was the case at the London Artillery ground in the 18 th century but there were no moves, as happened at Lord’s in its early years, to deter the lower orders by a heightened entrance cost. First-class county cricket fuelled the passion of true English cricket- lovers and still holds many of us in its alluring thrall. A Lancashire victory continues to give me an emotional, physically uplifting boost whereas an England win leaves me unmoved. (Such emotional, physically uplifting boosts have, unfortunately, been in fairly short supply as of late). Objectively, however, one has to accept the disappearance of an ‘integrated culture’, that substantial cross-class and also cross-generational factor that was the main building block of a compact society of relative social harmony. Without that fundamental foundation and structure, the corresponding superstructure which included that cherished format of cricket cannot thrive. It may not perish but it cannot flourish. Precious little vanishes but much becomes a question of vestiges clinging on, at best never attaining the status of former times. Although, with the collapse of the major manufacturing industries and similar economic factors, the relatively simple class system that appertained until the 1950s is now much complicated and variegated, one stark fact is clear. More so than in the previous epoch, there is a minority in what is certainly a more oligarchic society who command largish amounts of income and a majority on much sparser commons. It has been observed that both cricket players and watchers tend to fall into the former social band. ‘O tempores o mores’ ; Cicero’s famed terse phrase about other times having other customs is relevant. The ODI versions of cricket have been piecemeal, hurried and superficial essays in trying to adapt the game to a different social environment. They have failed conclusively in their