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The Yorkshire captaincy affair of 1927 arose from a disagreement among members of Yorkshire County Cricket Club over the selection of a new captain to succeed the retired Major Arthur Lupton. The main issue was whether a professional cricketer should be appointed to the post. It was a tradition throughout English county cricket that captains should always be amateurs. At Yorkshire, a succession of amateur captains held office in the 1920s, on the grounds of their supposed leadership qualities, although they were not worth their place in the team as cricketers. None lasted long; after Lupton's departure some members felt it was time to appoint a more accomplished cricketer on a long-term basis. The Yorkshire committee, prompted by the influential county president, Lord Hawke, approached Herbert Sutcliffe, one of the side's leading professionals. After Sutcliffe's provisional acceptance of the captaincy, controversy arose. Some members objected to the appointment on the traditional grounds that Sutcliffe was not an amateur; others felt that if a professional was to be appointed, the post should be offered to the county's senior professional, Wilfred Rhodes, who had been playing much longer than Sutcliffe. Rhodes himself was offended that he had not been approached. When Sutcliffe became aware of the controversy, he withdrew his acceptance. No offer was made to Rhodes, and the county subsequently appointed amateur William Worsley as captain. He was respected by the team but had little personal success, lasted for just two seasons, and was followed by two further short-term leaders. In 1933 Brian Sellers, a more competent amateur, was appointed and became the long-serving captain that Yorkshire had sought. ==Background== In the 1920s, every English county cricket team had an amateur captain.〔Swanton and Woodcock, p. 397.〕 Yorkshire had been led by amateurs since Lord Hawke took over the position in 1883.〔Prior to 1883, Yorkshire had been led by professionals since the club's creation in 1863. See 〕 Amateurs were usually from privileged backgrounds, while professionals were mainly from the working classes. Class distinctions pervaded the game, which was organised and administered by former and current amateurs. They wished to preserve leadership roles for members of the Establishment, in defiance of broader social changes that had reduced their influence in other sports.〔Birley, pp. 105–6.〕〔Ryder, pp. 175, 179.〕〔Williams, p. 187.〕 Administrators argued that amateurs were better captains as they were free from worries over employment. The ''Wisden'' editor believed that "the professional may have difficulty in enforcing discipline. He would naturally hesitate to suggest to his committee that this player or that should be dropped, and so be instrumental in depriving the man in question of some part of his livelihood. Further, feeling that an error of judgment would prejudice his standing with the committee, he might well hesitate to take risks." In 1925, Lord Hawke, then the Yorkshire president, expressing his hope that an amateur would always be available to captain the national side, had made the impromptu comment, "Pray God, no professional shall ever captain England."〔Gibson, p. 154.〕 His remarks were widely reported in the press and heavily criticised. This was to leave Hawke in an awkward situation in 1927.〔Gibson, p. 155.〕 By the end of the 1927 English cricket season, Yorkshire had had a succession of short-term captains. Generally, these men were neither sufficiently good players nor leaders to merit a position in the team, but Yorkshire's side was strong enough to include them in the interest of maintaining amateur leadership. Tactically, Yorkshire's success came not from the captain but from the influence of leading professionals Wilfred Rhodes and Emmott Robinson.〔Rogerson, p. 150.〕〔Hill, p. 104.〕 The captain's primary role was the enforcement of discipline: maintaining an amicable attitude within the team during games and ensuring that umpires and opponents were respected. In the early 1920s, Yorkshire had been undisciplined on the field; cricket correspondent Jim Kilburn wrote that they were in danger of becoming "social outcasts",〔 and E. W. Swanton commented that Yorkshire's hostile attitude when fielding looked likely to jeopardise their relations with other teams.〔 Matters came to a head in a match against Middlesex in 1924 at Sheffield. The crowd became very antagonistic and a Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) enquiry found that a Yorkshire player had incited the unrest. Further incidents against Surrey that season led the captain Geoffrey Wilson to resign, though he led the team to the County Championship in each of his three years in charge. His resignation was possibly prompted by the Yorkshire president, Lord Hawke, but Wilson did not like the belligerent nature of the team and found it difficult to handle Rhodes.〔Hill, pp. 106–7.〕 Yorkshire appointed Major Arthur Lupton as captain, hoping that his experience in the army would allow him to exercise greater control than his predecessors had managed. Aged 46, he was old for a cricketer. He had played once for Yorkshire in 1908, but was no longer an effective batsman. He was very popular with the players, and managed to improve discipline but had little influence on team tactics.〔〔Woodhouse, p. 333.〕 He left such matters to Rhodes and Robinson, to the point where several apocryphal stories emerged about his lack of control. In one story, Yorkshire had scored around 400. Lupton, hoping to score some easy runs, came out of the amateur dressing room with his bat when a young professional touched his arm and said, "It's all right, sir. Mr Rhodes has declared (innings over )."〔Ryder, p. 181.〕〔Hill, pp. 107–8.〕 After three years in charge, Lupton resigned the captaincy at the end of 1927.〔 In their search for a successor, Yorkshire hoped to appoint a player with a better cricketing reputation who would serve for a longer term.〔 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「Yorkshire captaincy affair of 1927」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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