MCC Abolishes the Amateur–Professional Distinction — November 1962

The amateur/professional distinction reflected the class structure of Victorian England. Its survival into the 1960s was increasingly anomalous; the post-war welfare state and the rise of professional sport as mass entertainment made it untenable.

The vote was not a surprise — several county chairmen and the press had been arguing for abolition for years — but it was historic. The system being abolished had its roots in the eighteenth century, when cricket was played between wealthy patrons and their paid servants. By 1962 the division had become a legal fiction: Colin Cowdrey, officially an amateur, received a salary from Kent via a variety of arrangements; many other 'gentlemen' were similarly compensated. The MCC committee, after months of discussion, accepted the recommendation of its sub-committee and voted to end the distinction from 1963. The practical changes were significant: county captains could now be professionals (Essex immediately appointed Keith Fletcher's eventual predecessor), scorecards listed all players by initials and surname, the separate dressing rooms and entrances at Lord's were retired, and the Gentlemen v Players fixture was never played again. The vote also had international implications: it removed England's ability to insist on an amateur captain for overseas tours, a restriction that had occasionally produced weak captaincies.