In the summer of 1881 seven of Nottinghamshire's leading professionals — Alfred Shaw, Arthur Shrewsbury, Fred Morley, John Selby, William Barnes, Wilfrid Flowers and (briefly) Mordecai Sherwin — refused to play for the county after a dispute with the secretary, Captain Henry Holden, over fixtures, pay and the right to a guaranteed benefit. The strike crippled Notts' season, was the first major industrial action in English cricket, and laid the groundwork for the formal employment contracts that professionals would gradually win across the next two decades.
By 1881 Notts were the strongest county side in England, built around a core of veteran professionals: Shaw (the bowler), Shrewsbury (the batsman), Morley (the left-arm fast bowler) and the rest. They were also the most enterprising — Shaw and Shrewsbury were running tours to Australia and North America almost as a private business. The committee, dominated by amateurs and gentry, regarded the players as employees and resented their independence.
Holden had already clashed with Shaw and Shrewsbury several times. The Yorkshire fixture row was the proximate cause but the underlying grievance — the absence of any contractual security for professionals who relied on cricket for their income — had been building for years.
The 1881 dispute had several immediate triggers. Shaw and Shrewsbury were running a profitable side line as overseas tour promoters and had, on their own initiative, arranged an early-season fixture with Yorkshire. Captain Holden, a former High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and an autocratic committee man, regarded this as a usurpation of the committee's authority. He insisted the match be cancelled and the players punished.
The seven Notts professionals — Shaw, Shrewsbury, Morley, Selby, Barnes, Flowers and Sherwin — wrote to the committee demanding (a) formal contracts of employment for each season; (b) guaranteed benefits after a stated period of service; and (c) a say in the early-season fixture list. Holden refused all three demands. The seven, in turn, refused to take the field for Notts.
The strike held through most of the 1881 season. Notts, deprived of nearly all their best players, lost five of their nine matches and finished bottom of the unofficial county table. The committee tried, with limited success, to persuade amateur replacements to fill the side and made public statements blaming the strikers for 'a want of gratitude'.
Resolution came piecemeal over the following months. Shaw and Shrewsbury, the leaders, wrote to the committee in late 1881 expressing regret at 'having acted against the wishes of the committee' and were re-admitted in 1882; Morley, Selby and the rest followed. The committee, however, did not concede the formal contract or guaranteed benefit at the time; those reforms came across the 1880s and 1890s, partly in response to ongoing pressure from the same group of professionals.
Early 1881: Shaw and Shrewsbury arrange an unauthorised early-season match with Yorkshire.
Holden orders cancellation; refuses contracts and benefit guarantees.
Seven Notts professionals (Shaw, Shrewsbury, Morley, Selby, Barnes, Flowers, Sherwin) refuse to play.
Notts struggle through 1881 with depleted XI; lose five of nine matches.
Late 1881: Shaw and Shrewsbury write apologetic letter to committee.
1882: Most strikers reinstated; underlying issues unresolved.
1880s-1890s: Formal contracts and benefit systems adopted gradually.
Spring 1881
Shaw and Shrewsbury arrange unauthorised Yorkshire match.
Early summer 1881
Seven Notts professionals refuse to play; strike begins.
Summer 1881
Notts crippled; lose five of nine county matches.
Late 1881
Shaw and Shrewsbury write letter of regret.
1882
Strikers gradually reinstated.
“Against the wishes of the committee.”
“A want of gratitude.”
The first true industrial dispute in English county cricket. The seven Notts professionals lost their immediate fight but won the long argument: by 1900 contracts and benefits had become standard for senior county professionals.
The 1881 Notts dispute was the first organised assertion of professionals' employment rights in English cricket. Every subsequent contract negotiation between professional cricketers and their counties — including the standard contract of 1908 and the modern Professional Cricketers' Association — traces conceptually back to it.
England
1932-08-12
In August 1932 the MCC selectors confirmed Douglas Jardine as England's captain for the 1932-33 tour of Australia, a decision contested at the highest levels of English cricket and one that — combined with Plum Warner's appointment as tour manager — would set the conditions for the Bodyline series.
England
1934-03-21
On 21 March 1934 Douglas Jardine wrote to The Cricketer that he had 'neither the desire nor the intention' of playing in the upcoming home Ashes series. The announcement, taken as a quiet resignation, removed the architect of Bodyline from the field before Australia returned to England — a precondition Australia's Board had implicitly demanded.
England / Gloucestershire
1937-11-15
In November 1937 Wally Hammond — the leading professional batsman of his era — was accepted by MCC as an amateur, opening the door to the England captaincy he received six months later for the 1938 Ashes. The change crystallised inter-war debates about the amateur-professional divide and the unwritten rule that England's captain be amateur.