Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

bat and ball and in the field – in addition he took 27 catches in first-class matches – was exceptional. Wisden described him as having a ‘wonderful second summer’ which … ‘more than fulfilled the high promise which he had shown in his first season.’ This led to Shepherd being awarded by The Cricket Society the coveted Wetherall Award for the leading allrounder in the English first-class game – he was to be in illustrious company with Sobers, Hadlee, Illingworth, Imran Khan, Rice, Procter, and more recently Shane Warne – amongst others. Kent had found a star – and they had a bargain as well. Shepherd’s basic salary in this outstanding year had been £700 p.a. (slightly more than the annual pay of an agricultural labourer and roughly equivalent to £17,100 in 2009 money) paid, of course, only during the cricketing months. But bargain or not, for Shepherd the apprenticeship was certainly over and Kent sealed their good fortune for the next three seasons by extending his contract until the end of 1971. So John Shepherd’s career as a professional county cricketer had been well and truly launched, and in international cricket, testing times were ahead as well. Kentish Apprentice 41 The Kentish influence. Leslie Ames, Colin Cowdrey and Mike Denness all played a part in Shepherd’s early career with Kent.