Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

John Shepherd The Loyal Cavalier PADDY BRIGGS LIVES IN CRICKET ACS PUBLICATIONS £12.00 John Shepherd was a leading allrounder in first-class cricket in England in the 1970s and 1980s. He was a loyal servant of Kent for seventeen seasons and of Gloucestershire, as player and coach, for seven more. He scored more than 21,000 runs and took over 1,800 wickets in ‘senior’ cricket over his long career. ‘Shep’ as he was affectionately known, was born in Barbados where his natural talent was spotted and nurtured by Everton Weekes, one of the ‘three Ws’. He was ‘brought’ to England by Kent in 1965 and his successful adaptation to county cricket led to awards as the leading allrounder in English cricket (1968), Wisden Cricketer of the Year (1979), and Tests for the West Indies in 1969 and 1970/1. Shep was the leading wicket-taker amongst modern overseas players - his 976 Championship wickets put him at the top of the list of post-war overseas bowlers and third in their all-time rankings. He was a principal contributor to Kent’s ‘glory years’ of eleven trophies between 1967 and 1978. Paddy Briggs’ biography covers John Shepherd’s life in cricket – his early years in the Caribbean, his brief Test career, his controversial involvement in tours to Southern Africa in the apartheid era, his clumsy sacking by Kent in 1981 and his late-flowering achievements with Gloucestershire in the 1980s. Throughout his career Shep was the most loyal of players and colleagues: his gloriously cavalier batting made him a special favourite with fans. Shep was the antithesis of the cricket mercenary and contrasts with the Kolpak world of modern county cricket. His loyalty and effort is well-described in a candid telling of his story.