Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

where the Test was played. (The Jamaican Arthur Barrett played in the First Test at Kingston, for example). The Bajan Shepherd had to wait until the Fourth Test in Barbados for his ‘turn’. The match was a high-scoring draw with Shepherd having little chance to shine with the bat but bowling economically (and taking a wicket) in each of the Indians’ innings. He retained his place in the side for the Fifth Test where he again bowled well, taking three for 78 in 35 overs in India’s first innings and two for 45 in their second. The young Sunil Gavaskar was Shepherd’s last Test victim, clean bowled for 220, but his last Test innings was a mere nine runs when as an opening batsman he was out trying to get a run chase off the ground in the West Indies’ second knock. During the Test match in Trinidad John Shepherd’s great friend and compatriot Keith Boyce said to him that he had been speaking to Dr Rudi Webster (also a Bajan) who was then helping the West Indies team. Webster told Boyce that he understood that Shepherd would never play for the West Indies again. Was he perceived as a rebel? Was there some hidden agenda? Was there a personality conflict or a mythical story doing the rounds that scuppered his chances? Was there some terrible mistake? To this day Shepherd does not know – but it was to be a prediction that sadly for him was to become true. The West Indies’ next series was at home against New Zealand in early 1972 and Shepherd was not asked to make himself available for that series by coming home for the 1972 Shell Shield competition, despite the fact that he had had another good season for Kent in 1971. Three West Indians active in county cricket (Lloyd, Fredericks and Holder) were brought back to the West Indies for the New Zealand visit all expenses paid, but all the others, including Shepherd, were advised that, whilst they would be considered if they returned home under their own steam, they would only have their travelling expenses paid if they were eventually selected for the Test team. West Indies cricket was seriously under-funded at the time – no doubt had more money been available, more England-based West Indians, like Shepherd, would have been brought home at the West Indies Board’s expense. In the circumstances John Shepherd decided to stay in England for the 1971/72 winter. For Shepherd a call from the West Indies selectors was also not to come for the visit of the Australians planned for February-April 1973 either. Along with fourteen other West Indians in county cricket he did receive a letter advising him of the terms that would apply should he decide to return to the Caribbean at his own expense in the hope of making the Test side. But, as in the previous winter, Shepherd decided to stay at home. Shepherd was also overlooked for the West Indies tour party to England in 1973 – and that was the final nail in the coffin of his international career. Later in the 1970s, as the first cricket World Cup took place and one-day cricket expanded, Shepherd was again a logical choice, as one of the best allrounders in the world, for the West Indies team. But by then his involvement in Southern African cricket (Chapter Five) precluded this – Testing Times 51