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GENTLEMAN AND PLAYERS
65
The Players rightly get paid higher for this match than for any other, and everything ought to be done to make it the goal of every cricketer's ambition to be selected. There has been a levelling up in the two sides. In former years, though grand cricket was shown, up to 1865 the Players were too strong; between 1865 and 1877 the boot was on the other leg; and in batting, bowling, and wicket-keeping, the two sides are now more even than they have ever been before, though, of course, in bowling the amateurs are weaker. But it is a match too good to have more than once a year, and it seems to be the only game where amateurs and professionals can meet on even terms with no social vexations and troubles.
