Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

Cowdrey was frail and ill but was determined to be present and to deliver a warm and emotional speech at the wedding which was held in the beautiful chapel of Eastbourne College. There was nary a dry eye in the house! A year after Shep’s wedding Cowdrey died at the age of 67, and in March 2001 Shep joined his colleagues from the 1970 Championship-winning team to walk together in tribute down the aisle of Westminster Abbey at Cowdrey’s memorial service. There is one last brief chapter in the ‘third innings’ of John Shepherd’s ‘Life in Cricket’. He spent two rather frustrating years working for the International Cricket Council as ‘Regional Development Officer’ for the Americas region, based at the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in Antigua. The job was ill-defined and included responsibility for the development of the game in both North and South America. The region was far too broadly scoped and the rivalries and organisational confusions that Shep stumbled into were huge and way beyond the capability of one man, however smart and cricket-savvy, to cope with. The WICB was at times a reluctant host and never a very hospitable one – even to one of their own. For John and Sue Shepherd, whilst there was much delight in living on a beautiful Caribbean island, there was great frustration that the job Shep was so earnestly trying to do was an impossible one. In November 2003 John Shepherd celebrated his sixtieth birthday, back now, with Sue, in Kent in a lovely house in a quiet road in Herne Bay. This naturally-gifted sportsman now played golf off a low, single-figure Third Innings 117 Colin Cowdrey and John Shepherd at John’s wedding in Eastbourne in 1999.