Amateurs held a privileged and powerful status in first-class cricket between 1900 and 1939. Before 1914 it was taken for granted that amateurs should captain teams, but worries that the game could become entirely professional provoked fears that the level of sportsmanship in cricket would decline. Between the wars supporters of amateurism felt more need to defend amateur privilege, but dissatisfaction with amateurism among professionals and in wider society was never sufficient to bring about the collapse of amateur authority.