A Confession?

[neville cardus]

"We too are glad to be doctors, one up and coming, the other here and going. We have had our doubts: one of us seriously considered a career on the stage, the other as a historian [...]. These remain our hobbies, unlike the famous cricketer, WG Grace, who took 10 years to qualify as a doctor, saying: 'Medicine is my hobby, cricket is my profession.'" -- Richards, Peter; Stockill, Simon: Learning Medicine, p. 132

[Richard]

We always knew, did we not, that WG was devoted to cricket before anything else?

[a massive zebra]

I think he is referring to the fact that Grace was officially an amateur, and yet profited handsomely from the game.

[a massive zebra]

The extent of Dr Grace's shamateurism knew no bounds. I wonder how many people are aware of his terms for the 1891-92 Ashes tour? The tour was sponsored by Lord Sheffield, one of the world's richest men, who was determined to bring Grace over to ensure the box office success of his team.

Lord Sheffield wrote to Arthur Shrewsbury, inviting him to join the team and seeking his advice on the outlook of the tour. Shrewsbury believed that as Grace had not been to Australia for 18 years a new generation of cricketers would be eager to see him, so his presence alone would likely improve the takings of the tour by between £1500 and £2000.

Lord Sheffield immediately wrote to Grace, who, after a meeting at Sheffield Park in March 1891, agreed to make his second tour of Australia for a fee of £3000, plus all expenses for himself, his wife and two children, and the cost of employing a locum to run his medical practice while he was away. The total cost to Lord Sheffield for Grace alone was around £5000.

By means of comparison, the leading professionals on the tour, such as George Lohmann and Bobby Abel, all accepted £300. Even this was pretty good going when one considers that in 1901 only 400,000 in an English population of 33 million declared an annual income of over £400.

[bond21]

meh Curtley Ambrose liked Basketball but played Cricket to get money.

[BoyBrumby]

Originally Posted by bond21

meh Curtley Ambrose liked Basketball but played Cricket to get money.

Yeah, if ever there was a sport full of paupers, it's basketball...

[silentstriker]

Originally Posted by BoyBrumby

Yeah, if ever there was a sport full of paupers, it's basketball...

Well, I think he was just much better at cricket. I did hear the same thing from Curtly in an interview - he said his first loves are music and basketball, and he played cricket mainly to pay the bills, and retired as soon as his body started giving out. He said he rarely watches cricket these days.

[Richard]

The point, though, is that the correlation between playing basketball and practicing medicine is roughly zero.

[Jono]

I had a fairly humoruous reply all set in my head but kept reading the rest of the thread and now I've forgotten it.

[Son Of Coco]

Originally Posted by BoyBrumby

Yeah, if ever there was a sport full of paupers, it's basketball...

[bagapath]

Originally Posted by Jono

I had a fairly humoruous reply all set in my head but kept reading the rest of the thread and now I've forgotten it.

this is funny enough!

[weldone]

Originally Posted by Jono

I had a fairly humoruous reply all set in my head but kept reading the rest of the thread and now I've forgotten it.

skull nomination...

[neville cardus]

Originally Posted by Richard

We always knew, did we not, that WG was devoted to cricket before anything else?

Yes, but it was not his "profession".

[a massive zebra]

Originally Posted by a massive zebra

The extent of Dr Grace's shamateurism knew no bounds. I wonder how many people are aware of his terms for the 1891-92 Ashes tour? The tour was sponsored by Lord Sheffield, one of the world's richest men, who was determined to bring Grace over to ensure the box office success of his team.

Lord Sheffield wrote to Arthur Shrewsbury, inviting him to join the team and seeking his advice on the outlook of the tour. Shrewsbury believed that as Grace had not been to Australia for 18 years a new generation of cricketers would be eager to see him, so his presence alone would likely improve the takings of the tour by between £1500 and £2000.

Lord Sheffield immediately wrote to Grace, who, after a meeting at Sheffield Park in March 1891, agreed to make his second tour of Australia for a fee of £3000, plus all expenses for himself, his wife and two children, and the cost of employing a locum to run his medical practice while he was away. The total cost to Lord Sheffield for Grace alone was around £5000.

By means of comparison, the leading professionals on the tour, such as George Lohmann and Bobby Abel, all accepted £300. Even this was pretty good going when one considers that in 1901 only 400,000 in an English population of 33 million declared an annual income of over £400.

And if that wasn't enough, following Grace's one hundredth century in 1895, three seperate national collections were raised for his benefit, collected by the MCC, Gloucestershire CCC, and two national newspapers, in total amounting to about £10,000!

[bond21]

Yea, Ambrose beat Jordan in the draft for the Bulls but decided there wasnt enough money in the NBA.