C_C said:
I think it turned into professional cricket from the 60s onwards - the late 50s were a transitional period.
But even then players couldn't make a living from cricket, so how can you question their commitment? Players from Sutcliffe's era made far greater sacrifices on tour.
And Sutcliffe was a professional, as recognised by the "Gentleman and Players" distinction. He played professional cricket for Yorkshire.
Massively overbloated event simply because of the culture-shock to the aussie psyche- it says a lot about the so-called mental toughness and seriousness of the sport when people start complaining that the bowler is 'unfair' to bowl a googly or its 'unfair' to bowl anything but waist high deliveries.
Bloated as it may be, it was still intense cricket. I'm struggling to find a modern day equivalent. Bodyline shows that cricket was taken seriously back then, not only because of the furore and controversy it created, or the fervour with which it was written about, but because cricketers were clearly thinking about methodologies. The world may have lacked mass communication, but there was no lack of scrutiny. The West Indies knew enough about bodyline to try it at Old Trafford
Unless you wish to contend that the majority of the players, who held day jobs and played cricket in the evenings/seasonal cricketers were somehow magically superior to the players who play cricket 24/7 from an intensely scrutinising perspective in an intensely competitive feild, Sutcliffe has no business hanging around in the top 10 batsmen's list- or even the top 20.
Sutcliffe played first class cricket for 20 years and barely knew failure. He was a batsman of rare class. In his prime he was so unplayable that they changed the lbw law because of him. Unless you wish to contend that there were no good bowlers in a twenty year span of first class cricket, I don't see how a player whose Test average never dropped below 60 can have his record denigrated on the basis that cricket wasn't egalitarian enough for you.
Based on what you've written, I don't see how you can make a concession for Bradman, whilst making it seem like Sutcliffe & Hobbs played in the 19th century.
It stands to reason that cricket wasn't as athletic in Sutcliffe's era, but that doesn't mean Sutcliffe was the breezy player that Trumper was -- quite the opposite from all accounts. After all, Sutcliffe is renowned for his footwork & using a dead bat on treacherous pitches. Hardly a blazon approach to cricket.