One of the more engaging British crime shows was The Last Detective. The title was not an elegy for lost skills, but an inspector's appraisal of the humble hero, 'If I wanted this case solved, you would be the last detective I would send.'
I thought of the title when asked to write about work, and was tempted to reflect from the perspective of Catholic Social Teaching about work on the dispute between the Australian cricketers and their board. On the face of it cricketers and the Catholic Church might be the last places to look for anything illuminating about work, unless perhaps they yield last place to my reflections on the subject.
Nevertheless illumination is sometimes found in the most unlikely of places. So here goes.
The major point of dispute between the Australian Cricketers' Association and Cricket Australia is whether cricketers should continue to receive a proportion of the income derived from cricket, or the board should have the power to determine the salary they are offered. Beneath that question is another: whether Australian cricketers through the association should share responsibility with the board in running cricket in Australia. The dispute touches both on money and on power.
To consider cricket as work would strike many people as odd. They would see it as a hobby, a recreation, a game or a calling — like acting or singing. These are occupations about which early Catholic thinkers had little good to say. They saw them as license rather than work, regarding actors as sex workers, and gladiators — the professional sportsmen of the time — as notorious for being let loose on unarmed Christians. Even now professional sportspersons receive little attention in Catholic social thought.
That is a pity because a Catholic understanding of work provides a helpful perspective for looking at professional sport. Its crucial insight is that work is a human activity, and that each human being is precious, unique and needs to be respected.
Neither people nor work can be seen as means to an economic end, as a cost or as expendable. Work and its rigours are an essential part of human growth, an activity in which people transcend their limits and find meaning. Any discussion of work must begin with the person who works.
Understood in this way work involves agency and creativity. It includes art and skill, and the satisfaction that accompanies them. Professional cricket is a perfect example. To