Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

hatful of wickets and the selectors would then have been forced to pick him for Rhodesia’s next Currie Cup matches, which were to be in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth in early December! When the party for the two matches in South Africa was announced Shepherd was indeed not in it, his place being taken by the out-of-form Jackman. John Shepherd smelled a rat. He realised that had he gone with the Rhodesian team he would again have to have been designated an ‘honorary white’ in South Africa where apartheid was still very much alive and ill – which would have been unprecedented and very complex for all involved. There was also the point that the Rhodesian cricketers took advantage of their tours to South Africa to stock up on all the goods that were not, because of sanctions, for sale in Rhodesia so, if Shepherd had taken Jackman’s place, the latter would have missed out on that perk! The normally mild-mannered Shepherd for once blew his top as he became aware of all of these shenanigans saying that he was ‘bloody angry’ and said that ‘If I was offered $10,000 I would never play for Rhodesia again. I feel that I have been used.’ This remark was, of course, immediately picked up by the press. 94 The president of the Rhodesian Cricket Union, David Lewis, then announced that Shepherd had not been selected only for ‘cricket reasons’ (shades of D’Oliveira!) and that Robin Jackman was preferred because he ‘ … always bowled well at sea level’! Immediately after this furore broke in the press Barry Richards, the Natal captain and an icon of South African cricket, issued a statement in which he said that it was ‘ … obvious that Shepherd’s colour has influenced the decision. ... I am damn sure that if someone else – a player of a different colour – had put up as tremendous a showing as Shepherd did at the weekend he would not have been left out.’ 95 Many in Rhodesia agreed, accusing the selectors as having originally pandered to the South African Cricket Board and calling for their resignations. This was heady stuff and the legitimacy of John Shepherd’s case, and of Barry Richards’ suspicions, was strengthened when Jackman, bowling at sea level at Newlands, failed to take a wicket and conceded 83 runs in 26 overs the following week against Western Province as Rhodesia fell to an innings defeat. Back in Rhodesia events were taking an extraordinary turn. An article had appeared in the Zimbabwe Star , the weekly newspaper of the African National Congress headed by Joshua Nkomo, who was also the founder of the of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union and a leader of the armed struggle against the white Rhodesia government. This article has reported that ‘ … by coming to Rhodesia Shepherd betrayed the cause of blacks … his selection for Rhodesia merely reinforces the white people’s belief that there is nothing wrong with their society’. 96 Shortly after this article appeared John Shepherd was summoned to Meikles Hotel in Salisbury to Honorary White 77 94 This and the following quotations from David Lewis were reported in ‘Reaction as Rhodesia drop Shepherd’, The Times , 3 December 1975. 95 ‘Colour blamed for dropping of Shepherd’, The Times , 4 December 1975 96 Reported in the Sunday Mail , 14 December 1975.