Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

In 1961 Everton Weekes was asked to take a team of Barbados schoolboys to Jamaica and he selected John Shepherd to be part of the touring party – this was the first time, at the age of 17, that John had ever left the island. To mark his selection John’s father gave him a top-of-the-range Stuart Surridge bat which, of course, was soon to sport a genuine Everton Weekes autograph. During the tour John’s fast-medium bowling developed quickly. Everton Weekes remembers: ‘He bowled more consistently and better than the rest – he bowled at the stumps and he was a great athlete … he had his limitations, of course, but strengths as well … to play within your own limitations is a strength.’ Weekes was also impressed with the young Shepherd’s attitude: ‘John and I really talked quite a lot ... he listened’ . John played at Sabina Park against a young Jamaican side which included Maurice Foster and a number of others who went on to play Test cricket. When John Shepherd left Alleyne School he played club cricket for, and captained the Belleplaine village team in the Barbados Cricket League. In one match at Belleplaine versus Hillaby he scored a double century – 227, his highest-ever score – and as his talent blossomed further he decided, in 1964, to move to the long-established and prestigious Maple club in the Barbados Cricket Association competition. Everton Weekes had hoped that Shepherd might play for his club, Empire, but Maple on the west coast in the parish of St James was easier to travel to across the island from St Andrew. Now, for the first time, John was being tested against the highest class, playing against club teams with international players like Charlie Griffith, David Holford and Cammie Smith – and with success. This meant that he began to be noticed. Politicians and entertainers may come and go but there is no-one more famous in Barbados than a successful Bajan cricketer and soon John began to be known as a player of special allround promise. His photograph appeared in the papers and stories were written saying that he would soon play for the island team and was a potential future Barbados captain. But although he performed well at club level, including taking six wickets in an innings in an important match versus the Police at Kensington Oval, the breakthrough into the island team was much harder to achieve. Barbados had a phenomenally strong team at the time – the first six in the batting order were Hunte, Smith, Bynoe, Nurse, Sobers and Weekes, with Griffith and Hall opening the bowling – almost the complete side was comprised of Test cricketers. The Barbados Cricket League had occasional representative matches against the Barbados Cricket Association at the Kensington Oval, and John Shepherd played in a number of these matches and also captained the BCL team on one occasion. Whilst thoughts of a professional cricket career had been in John Shepherd’s mind for a while, nevertheless on leaving school he expected to enter into teacher training and he had tentatively started down this career path. Then fate took a hand. John Shepherd’s cricket breakthrough was to come early in 1965 when, at the age of 21, he was selected to appear for Barbados, coached by Everton Weekes, against the International Cavaliers. The Cavaliers were a scratch side of mainly high-quality English players, augmented by a few from other Belleplaine Boy 22