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The Nottinghamshire Players' Strike of 1881

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.