Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

with the top clubs in the Barbados Cricket Association. However Conrad Hunte’s burgeoning success perhaps drew more attention to Alleyne and in 1959 John Shepherd was spotted by the newly appointed Barbados government cricket coach – none other than John’s boyhood hero Everton Weekes. Weekes, who was to oversee the development of young cricket talent on the island for eleven years, speaking in January 2008, 36 described the young Shepherd as ‘part of that basket of youngsters that passed through my hands. I would say that he was, easily, one of not only the nicest, but one of the youngsters who listened very carefully to whatever I had to say.’ The involvement of Weekes was crucial to John Shepherd’s cricket progress. Not only did Weekes assist him technically but he also helped him focus on the aspects of the game at which he was most likely to excel. Weekes was a hands-on coach and dinned into Shepherd some of the key rudiments of good batting including calling, ‘Yes’, ‘No’, or ‘Wait’, and running between the wickets. As with many talented young cricketers John was experimenting with wicket-keeping, spin bowling and all the other cricketing arts – indeed for a time he was a wicket-keeper/batsman. It was as a keeper that John was called up for trials by the Barbados Cricket League for fixtures against the more elite Barbados Cricket Association. But in the school team that he captained Shepherd had two fast bowlers who he felt had rather suspect actions – so John decided to try and develop his medium-fast bowling so that he could open the bowling and keep the dodgy action bowlers just to one end! Belleplaine Boy 21 Part of Alleyne School, Belleplaine, in 2008. 36 Interview with the author in Barbados, 17 January 2008.