Cricket was always a class-conscious game. Gentlemen & Players with the Players being the ordinary working man. This is not so apparent now.  There were many famous Players in professional cricket, Fred Trueman to name but one.

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Being a pro cricketer isn't everything. It's actually a very risky career & not too many make any sort of living at it. The main problem is that most schools in Britain don't encourage competitive team games at all now. This is very serious. Due to the politically correct lobby there are very few school cricket teams these days. This is where the professional players came from in the past.

Ian Botham & Graham Gooch were brilliant players but they're mere youngsters compared with the true greats of the game. I can remember when they first played for England which wasn't that long ago.

its a very selective game, although like hagar said its not so noticable these days, but even a few years ago, players wouldnt be selected from your average school, its a higher class game. And like i said it doesnt matter how good you are if you dont goto these posh schools and colleges your chances of getting picked are slim to none. Thats why i never bothered to play in college, the short time i was there..
In the US you stand a good chance of being scouted into a bigger university from say a small community college, and then the pros obviously scout you from there, long process but it doesnt matter if your from the lower classes.

and the reason i am gonna be going to college there this fall.

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I haven't lost all marbles just yet. At least, I still had a few when I last checked. ???
That's why I sit here & make fun from a safe distance - I hope.

We have exactly the same situation here with proper football supporters - that's soccer to you lot on that side of the big puddle.
These guys are practised in all the not-so-gentle arts of unarmed & sometimes armed combat. I wouldn't dare tangle with them myself.

  We've all heard about 'soccer hooligans'.  Makes you wonder how many people go there to support their team and how many go there just to fight?

  And talk about taking your spot to heart, didn't Uruguay and Paraguay go to war over a soccer game?  There must be something about soccer that brings about the worst in people.
  Come to think of it, didn't the origins of soccer have something to do with someone digging up an enemies skull and out of anger for that enemy began kicking it around?  And becouse it was a skull nobody wanted to touch it, thus the "no hands" rule?  Alas poor Yorick!!

  Old joke that could apply, "Once I went to a fight and a soccer game broke out!!"

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El Salvador/Honduras - the soccer game was the spark that lit a simmering border conflict.  The Salvadorean team won a game in Honduras, and the fans, well, "were not friendly to each other".  Name calling escalated to border incursions with results that you had the last piston engine warplane dogfights - Corsairs (on both sides) vs Mustangs ...

Note that in the last countries that had Mustangs and Corsairs as first line equipment, they were retired not because of their unpopularity or "to get better equipment" but because getting spares was getting to be difficult.

If Rugby players are like they used to be they bash the heck out of each other on the pitch & then have a piss- booze-up together in the bar after the game.