Players have always received payment for playing, and there have always been full-timers aplenty, ever since the middle of the 19th-century.
Nor is it valid to suggest that not being full-time means people took it less seriously.
it is a very valid suggestion and you are free to check with a psychologist.
A few would play because of the pure joy they get from playing the game but for MOST human beings, incentive is a big factor for excellence.
And up until the 50s/60s, MOST players didnt make a total living out of cricket and you do not approach a part time job with the same level of intensity as full time ones.
And the fact that MOST players in the circuit back then were amatuers, it puts their commitment to question. A professional one amogst them is like a wolf amongst sheep or sampras playing the best damn weekend warrior.
Ie, overly inflated statistics, which is why in MOST sports you see mindboggling statistics early on in the game's evolution ( Sid Barnes, Bradman, Babe Ruth,Dyan Chand, Maurice Richard, Bill Tillden, Juan Manuel Fangio, etc etc).
Hmm... and players get injured a hell of a lot more today.
yeah. when you throw your body around, you do get injured a lot. When you travel so much,your immune system is compromised and broken down.
The players would be a lot fitter if they just stood there and waited for some spectator to toss the ball back from the boundary or took cozy boat rides.
I think that if anyone timetravelled they'd struggle for quite a while, and if they only played a handful of matches they'd be hammered every time.
Because there are all sorts of things that take lots of adaptation to, and while the ability is worth the same thing, all players would need to adapt if they weren't brought-up into it.
The average scientist today would put people like Newton to shame. A good international cricketer supplanted into the 1950s would make bradman's FC stats look ordinary.
The sport has developed a lot and the players posess a far tougher training regimen-mentally and physically these days than 100 years ago.
Its like taking a navy seal and putting him in alexander's army.