Until recently, players with less service might sometimes be given a "Testimonial" season or match: the difference appears to have been largely semantic, but for almost half a century one of the less financially sound English first-class county clubs, Derbyshire, made a point of not awarding benefits, but giving testimonials instead.
The amount that a player makes from his benefit depends on factors such as his personal popularity, contacts, social skills and fame at least as much as on his degree of financial need and the quality of his contribution to his club on the pitch.
Since the 1990s the proportion of cricketers who move from one county club to another during their playing career has been rising sharply, and many players who do so never receive a benefit.
The tax free status of benefits and testimonials rests on a single early 20th century legal ruling, and great care has to be taken by every benefit committee not to breach the rules in some small way which might lead to the player receiving a demand for tax on the entire amount, or to provoke the Inland Revenue into challenging the exemption on an overall basis.
However, testimonials for prominent professional footballers have in modern times increasingly become charity fundraisers in which the player donates either a large part or all of the proceeds to one or more organisations.