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Cricket in World War I was severely curtailed in all nations where first-class cricket was then played except India. In England, South Africa and the West Indies, first-class cricket was entirely abandoned for the whole of the war, whilst in Australia and New Zealand regular competitions were played for the 1914–15 season but first-class matches were afterwards abandoned. In South Africa, first-class cricket did not recommence until a series of matches against the Australian Imperial Forces cricket team in late 1919, and provincial cricket was not played until a one-off match between Transvaal and Natal in April 1920. At least 210 first-class cricketers are known to have joined the armed forces, of whom 34 were killed. The obituary sections of Wisden between 1915 and 1919 contained the names of hundreds of players and officials of all standards who died in the service of their country. ==Abandonment of first-class cricket== With war looming in August, cricketers with military commitments, such as Sir Archibald White, the Yorkshire skipper, left their teams to do their duty, and Pelham Warner and Arthur Carr, who captained Middlesex and Nottinghamshire respectively, followed when war was declared.〔 The County Championship was not immediately abandoned, the MCC issuing a statement that "no good purpose can be saved at the moment by cancelling matches" on 6 August, but attendances plummeted.〔 Jack Hobbs, who had scored a career best 226 in front of over 14,000 spectators on 3 August, had to rearrange his benefit match from the Oval, after it was requisitioned by the Army, to Lord's and on 13 August the MCC announced that all matches arranged at Lord's up to September would be postponed.〔 News of casualties suffered by the British Expeditionary Force in Belgium was already turning the public mood against "business as usual" and on 27 August a letter written by W.G. Grace was published in ''The Sportsman'' in which he declared that "I think the time has arrived when the county cricket season should be closed, for it is not fitting at a time like this that able-bodied men should be playing cricket by day and pleasure-seekers look on. I should like to see all first-class cricketers of suitable age set a good example and come to the help of their country without delay in its hour of need."〔 The remaining matches in the Championship were abandoned "in deference to public opinion"〔 while the MCC closed the Scarborough Festival as "the continuation of first-class cricket is hurtful to the feelings of a section of the public".〔 The last match to be completed, on 2 September, pitted Sussex against Yorkshire at Hove. "The men's hearts were barely in the game", the periodical ''Cricket'' reported at the time, "and the match was given up as a draw at tea."〔 The last match played, twenty five years and a day later, before the abandonment of first-class cricket due to World War II saw the same teams facing each other on the same ground.〔 W. G. Grace, who had called for the early abandonment of cricket in his letter to ''The Sportsman'', was reputed to shake his fist at the Zeppelins floating over his South London home. When chided by a friend who pointed out that the fast bowling of Ernie Jones hadn’t discomforted him half so much, Grace replied testily "But I could SEE him!" Grace had played his second-last match, at the age of 66, for Eltham against Grove Park on 25 July 1914, scoring an unbeaten 69 out of 155 for six declared He died of a stroke on 23 October 1915. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cricket in World War I」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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