SJS
Hall of Fame Member
During most arguments which involve players/artists/performers from different eras, a major issue is the tendency of people to favour their own generations. Cricket is no exception. In fact, of the major sports,it suffers more from this generational-divide than , perhaps most team games.
AA Thomson, one of the games leading writers, who covered the game from the beginning of the 20th century(almost) till the sixties. This is what he said on the subject in the late sixties. It is relevant today as well. This forum too has seen such challenging of different periods and the performances of the same on equally fallacious arguments.
Food for thought ??
It can be argued, and incessantly is, that since the beginning of time every generation has complained that their juniors are going to the dogs. This, though partly true, is no more than half the truth . After all if we go back o the beginning of time, Abel did not go to the dogs, but Cain undoubtedly did. The chances are fifty-fifty.
The wails of the old foggies that any given reform will mean the end of all things can easily be proved ridiculous. The equally fallacious claims by reformers that their pet nostrum will bring about the new heaven and the new earth by next Tuesday at latest do not receive their fair share of derision. The argument evens out in time, but in any two generations the older one is not necessarily absurd all the time.
The irrefutable truth is that nothing is either good or bad merely because it is old or new. It is easy to exchange such verbal grimaces as ‘Fuddy-duddy” or “Whipper snapper" like shuttlecocks over a net, but it is more sensible to agree that excellence may occur in any age.
And excellence is an individual thing.
Comments ??
AA Thomson, one of the games leading writers, who covered the game from the beginning of the 20th century(almost) till the sixties. This is what he said on the subject in the late sixties. It is relevant today as well. This forum too has seen such challenging of different periods and the performances of the same on equally fallacious arguments.
Food for thought ??
It can be argued, and incessantly is, that since the beginning of time every generation has complained that their juniors are going to the dogs. This, though partly true, is no more than half the truth . After all if we go back o the beginning of time, Abel did not go to the dogs, but Cain undoubtedly did. The chances are fifty-fifty.
The wails of the old foggies that any given reform will mean the end of all things can easily be proved ridiculous. The equally fallacious claims by reformers that their pet nostrum will bring about the new heaven and the new earth by next Tuesday at latest do not receive their fair share of derision. The argument evens out in time, but in any two generations the older one is not necessarily absurd all the time.
The irrefutable truth is that nothing is either good or bad merely because it is old or new. It is easy to exchange such verbal grimaces as ‘Fuddy-duddy” or “Whipper snapper" like shuttlecocks over a net, but it is more sensible to agree that excellence may occur in any age.
And excellence is an individual thing.
Comments ??