Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

Foreword by Everton Weekes, KCMG, GCM, OBE I first met the young John Shepherd when I was the government cricket coach of Barbados in the early 1960s. John was at Alleyne School in St Andrew, which had already produced the great Conrad Hunte, and as soon as I saw him I felt that he too had a special ability. John had a good natural talent but what particularly impressed me was that, although he was a little shy, he was so eager to learn and he listened very carefully to what I said – I was trying to help him in all aspects of the game. I selected John for a schoolboy team that I coached and managed on a short tour to Jamaica in 1961 and he performed very well as a genuine allrounder and he seemed, even as a youngster, to have a good brain for the game. In 1965 I was working with the Barbados team when there was a tour by the International Cavaliers who were managed by Les Ames and captained by Trevor Bailey – they asked me whether there were any good young Bajan cricketers who might be suitable for county cricket. I recommended John Shepherd and his good friend Keith Boyce and that led to the two of them going to England – John to Kent and Keith to Essex. Before they went I gave them a few tips on how to play and how to behave which I had learned from my time in the Leagues and I know that John listened to me! John was from the same sort of humble background as me and most of the black cricketers in Barbados and we all had to work hard to progress in the game in those days. I was sure that John had both the attitude and the talent to do well in England and I followed his career there quite closely and was delighted with his success. When John Shepherd was around twenty I thought that he had the potential to be a Test cricketer – he was a good bowler, a good batsman and a very good fielder and he had a good head for one so young. Unfortunately for him he was around at the same time as some of the truly greats of West Indies cricket – Sobers, Kanhai, Lloyd, Roberts, Richards, Holding and the rest – he couldn’t quite cement a place in the team. Had John been a young man today he would have been one of the first names on the West Indies team sheet as an allrounder – and probably as captain! John Shepherd told me many times that I was his hero and role model when he was growing up and I am honoured that this was the case. I am certainly delighted to have known him as a friend for more than forty years – not least because I think that he shares my belief that sportsmen, no matter how successful or famous, need to live their lives with restraint and discipline as well as with flair and style. John never let his success go to his head – I am glad that his life in cricket has been recorded in this book and that his qualities as a human being shine through as well. Everton Weekes Barbados February, 2009 4