Crossland was named in the initial twelve-man squad for the first Test against Australia, which was played at Lancashire's Old Trafford ground. An official from the home ground chose the England team for each match. Lord Harris announced that he would not participate in the Test at Old Trafford if Crossland was selected. As a result, Lord Harris was withdrawn from the team and replaced by Tim O'Brien, although in the end Crossland did not play either. Lord Harris, who was both the captain of Kent and England in 1884, led the protests against throwing. He forced the retirement of two of Kent's bowlers, but was reasonably satisfied with Lancashire in 1884: for their match against Kent at Old Trafford, they dropped Nash, and by the meeting of the two sides in August that year, neither Crossland nor Nash were in the side. Lord Harris had hoped that this indicated that Lancashire were making efforts to "of own free will, and without agreement with other counties, to place [their eleven in an irreproachable position", though Lancashire later clarified that Crossland had only missed the match as he was suffering from a shoulder injury; while Nash's bowling was not suited to the hard pitches those matches were played on. Crowd protests against Crossland spread; there was trouble during matches at both Yorkshire and Derbyshire in 1884. Towards the end of that season, the "London Truth" reported that during a club match in his home town of Sutton-in-Ashfield, Crossland was no-balled by an umpire on account of throwing. Upon this, Crossland demanded the umpire retire from the match, and when the opposing captain refused, the match was abandoned. Crossland then announced, via the town crier, that his bowling would "pass unquestioned" in his next county match.