02-17-2020, 03:47 AM
Words are no more permanent than clouds, forever appearing and disappearing, changing their shape and their meaning. Luxury was once the same thing as lechery but the two words have long since parted company. In sport, the term professional was once an insult, now its a compliment. Its a word that reflects changing times.To be a professional athlete was until 1984 to be barred from the Olympic Games. Rugby union didnt accept professional players until 1995. But these days just about every athlete in the world would be happy to be described as a good pro. Its amateur thats now an insult. It now means slipshod, with low standards and expectations.The ancient and negative use of the world professional was largely an English thing to begin with. So inevitably its about social class. Or to be more accurate, its about social differences heavily disguised as moral differences. If you accepted money for playing sport, you were considered less of a person than one who played for free. In other words, the upper-middle classes - who could afford to play sport without reward - were by definition more moral than the working classes, who would lose money by missing a shift.But cricket, though always acutely aware of social class, has always been able to include people of different social strata in the same team, and to pay some but not others. Thats because the game itself is modelled on the class system: hard-working bowlers delivering the ball to privileged batsmen, who get the benefit of any doubt.Cricketers were all in it together, except not quite. Professionals changed in different changing rooms, travelled separately to away games, and frequently stepped onto the ground through different gates. Until 1962 this social chasm was celebrated by the annual Gentlemen v Players match.It should be noted here that the notion of amateurism - of not being a professional - was set about with hypocrisy. Players with gentlemanly backgrounds were frequently paid for playing, but were called club secretary. Sometimes they accepted a sinecure from some local firm. WG Grace, who posed as the quintessential amateur, was a full-time phoney, accepting considerable amounts of money for playing while pretending that he did nothing of the kind.But increasingly professionalism was seen as a good thing - commitment, hard work and responsibility, as opposed to languid condescension. This reflected the social changes of the 1960s. In many sports, the term professional was used, at first a little defiantly and then in a more straightforward fashion, to cover all sorts of worthy qualities.The word has come to imply a set of rather humdrum virtues, the minimum standards for playing top-level sport - proper preparation before seasons and matches, the ability to execute skill sets and to stick to prearranged plans. Its a term never used for performances of inspiration and flamboyance and style.A team is chasing a lowish total in a 50-over match. The players dont try and blast the lot in 20 overs. They work the bowling, collect the singles and win without risk in 45 overs - a thoroughly professional performance. Or a team without stars stifles a better team with tight, accurate bowling, crash-hot fielding and esprit de corps. That too is a professional performance. So to be professional is a compliment, but not an overwhelming one. This has spread to the off-field part of a cricketers life. To put a homophobic insult on your Twitter account is deemed unprofessional. Its professional to arrive on time, to wear the right clothes on match day, to give an interview in which you avoid questions with perfect politeness, to manage public appearances without using words that offend people, to avoid public drunkenness and early-morning spats outside nightclubs.A failure to do so is unprofessional not because its immoral but because it affects your earning power - and that can affect the earning power of your agent and your team-mates. Thus the England team that urinated on the pitch at The Oval after their Ashes win in 2013 was considered unprofessional. It was wrong because it made a newspaper story, not because it was in itself a bad thing. They should have known better. They should have known what newspapers are like. They should have been more professional.Once, to be professional was to be a second-class person. A professional couldnt play for certain clubs in certain sports. In other sports, professionals were banned outright. If you accepted payment for writing a book about rugby you couldnt play rugby again because you were forever tainted.Now rugby players boast about their professional standards. The same thing is true in many other sports, including cricket. Hes a good player, we say: very dedicated, very committed, very focused - very professional. A first-class type, in fact - well, first-class of the second class, anyway. Thats your pro. Wholesale Hurricanes Jerseys . But Bourque, who has missed three games with a lower-body injury, wont be in the lineup when the Habs travel to Buffalo to take on the Sabres on Wednesday. Carolina Hurricanes Pro Shop . Brad Jacobs and his Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., team took control of the game early. https://www.cheaphurricanes.com/ . Los Angeles star goalie survived those perilous gymnastics with no problem, and he eventually backstopped the Kings to a skid-snapping win. Quick stopped 27 shots in his return from a 24-game injury absence, Jeff Carter scored the tiebreaking goal with 7:55 to play, and the Kings snapped their five-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night. Stitched Hurricanes Jerseys . "It was nerve-wracking, but we pulled through," said Collaros, who threw four touchdown passes to lead the Toronto Argonauts (8-4) to a 33-27 win over the Calgary Stampeders (9-3) in front of 28,781 fans at McMahon Stadium. Carolina Hurricanes Store . The showiest items on Calgarys lot were forwards Mike Cammalleri and Lee Stempniak. Both will be unrestricted free agents this summer.A suspicious item found at Old Trafford on Sunday, which caused Manchester Uniteds game against Bournemouth to be postponed, has now been identified as a training device left in error. According to Greater Manchester Police, the device had accidentally been left by a private company following a training exercise involving explosive sniffer dogs held last Wednesday.Shortly before the final league game of the season was due to kick-off at 3pm, ground staff alerted police to a suspicious item that had been found in the toilets within the North West quadrant, between the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand and the Stretford End. A bomb disposal vehicle outside of Old Trafford after the Manchester United v Bournemouth game was abandoned Initially, a partial evacuation of the stadium was put in place but a decision was made between police and Manchester United club officials to abandon the game and a full controlled evacuation of the stadium was undertaken.A controlled explosion was then carried out on the suspect package which was described as an incredibly realistic-looking explosive device. Old Trafford was evacuated after the discovery of a suspect package in the North West Quadrant of the ground Assistant Chief Coonstable John OHare from Greater Manchester Police said: I am grateful to the Manchester United and Bournemouth supporters for their support and assistance today.ddddddddddddFollowing todays controlled explosion, we have since found out that the item was a training device which had accidentally been left by a private company following a training exercise involving explosive search dogs. A police sniffer dog at Old Trafford after the match was called off Whilst this item did not turn out to be a viable explosive, on appearance this device was as real as could be, and the decision to evacuate the stadium was the right thing to do, until we could be sure that people were not at risk. Everyone remained calm, followed instructions, and worked with officers and stewards to ensure that a safe evacuation was quickly completed. Those present today were a credit to the football family and their actions should be recognised.I would also like to thank all those involved in the operation today for such a professional response, which includes police officers, stewards, MUFC staff, media representatives and commentators and the Bomb Disposal Team.The match has been rescheduled for Tuesday with an 8pm kick-off, and will be shown live on Sky Sports 1 HD from 7.30pm. Executive vice chairman Ed Woodward (left) says lessons will be learned United executive-vice chairman Ed Woodward said: The safety of fans is always our highest priority.Id like to thank the support from the police which was first class and the impeccable response from fans of both teams.The club takes security very seriously and staff are regularly trained with the police and emergency services to identify and deal with these incidents. We will investigate the incident to inform future actions and decisions. Also See: Tuesday for Man Utd v Bmouth Recap as drama unfolded City draw at Swansea Quotes of the season ' ' '