Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

were over. This system, described by Bob Willis 17 as ‘semi-feudal’, was at best paternalist and at worst patronising and divisive – and very reliant on the popularity and the efforts of the beneficiary. Post Packer, things even in slow-moving English domestic cricket began to change for the better – although the pace of change was a bit too fast for some. The editor of the Kent annual for 1978, the first year after Packer, records with some regret that ‘Cricket … is fast becoming a business which brings with it the inevitable controversies … ’. 18 No doubt the hundreds of previously under-rewarded professional cricketers around the world would have said, ‘Not before time’. The feudal nature of the county system applied also to the nature of the relationship between the club (represented by its volunteer and elitist committees) and the players who had little or no representation and virtually no security of employment. For example, the General Committee at Kent met in late 1966 to consider who amongst the players should be re-engaged for the 1967 season – the minuted entry in respect of Bob Wilson, who had been with the county since 1952, requires no further comment: R.C.Wilson. Not re-engaged. It was agreed, however, that should he report fit at the beginning of the 1967 season, the County might make use of his services on a match to match basis. It was further agreed that he be invited to practice on the St Lawrence Ground, during pre-season training. 19 The Wilson instance is by no means an exceptional example of the crass handling of players by Kent’s committees at the time. Derek Underwood puts it strongly: ‘There was a total lack of sensitivity and of understanding what the life of a professional cricketer was all about by those running the club in the 1970s.’ 20 Mike Denness says that things really began to change for the worse from 1974 onwards, when Les Ames, after a year as President in 1975, no longer held any formal position at the county. ‘The committees were not interested in what the captain had to say,’ says Denness 21 and – as we shall see – John Shepherd would be a victim of this incompetence and insensitivity. Most culpably there was a total failure of communication between the committees and the players – even with their captain. Another contrast with modern times was the workload that professional cricketers had to undertake – and Shepherd, as an allrounder, worked as hard as anyone. In the statistical appendix to this book Shepherd’s career year by year includes all the top-flight cricket that he played. Almost every Introduiction 11 17 Bob Willis (with Patrick Murphy), Cricket Revolution , Sidgwick and Jackson, 1981. 18 Kent County Cricket Club Annual, 1978. 19 Minutes of Kent C.C.C. General Committee, 10 November 1966. Pre Packer this was the norm – as Mike Denness confirmed in an interview with the author, 16 October 2008. 20 Interview with the author, 24 September 2008. 21 Interview with the author, 16 October 2008.