Amateurism and Identity in England: How being ‘competitive’ became the point of distinction between northern and southern cricket.

It would appear that Darwin was onto something when he paraphrased Herbert Spencer’s “survival of the fittest”, to summarise his theory of evolution via competition. The competitive instincts in humans do not get any stronger or vital in the context of competing for food, and ultimately the species survival. The human race’s ability to comprehend and thus compete better than any other species has ensured our place at the top of the food chain