Brian Lara (right) presents a signed bat to David Shepherd after the second Pakistan/West Indies Test at Sabina Park on June 7. - JUNIOR DOWIE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
LONDON (Reuters):
'DANCING' UMPIRE David Shepherd will take charge of his final international match today when England host Australia in the decider of their three-match one-day international series at The Oval.
The 64-year-old, a highly popular and respected figure, has officiated in 92 Tests, the first in 1985 and the last between West Indies and Pakistan in Jamaica last month. Tuesday will be his 172nd one-dayer. He will then finish the English county season before retiring for good.
"It's very difficult to walk away. Cricket has been all my life, really. Ever since I was a nipper I wanted to play cricket for a living. You can't call it work really," he told Reuters at The Oval on Monday.
The portly, ruddy-faced Shepherd, a former county batsman with Gloucester-shire, quickly made the grade as an umpire. He was selected to stand in the last three World Cup finals in 1996, 1999 and 2003.
EXPLOITS
"I had no idea where umpiring would take me," he said. "I finished playing in 1979. I was a qualified teacher, but I wanted to stay in the game. Someone suggested umpiring.
"It's taken me all over the world, to places I would never have visited. I managed to get on the elite panel. There's just eight umpires on it. It's a heck of a lot of travelling. I said at the time it wasn't enough, even the Good Lord had 12.
"The fact that I played the game was a great advantage. Sometimes I can read the players' emotions and smooth over troubled waters.
"To be quite honest, I think player behaviour has improved a bit. You still get the odd outburst, but we have microphones and referees watching every ball."
Shepherd said the Australians were favourites for the Ashes starting later this month.
"I think if England win two they will have done exceptionally. They'll have done well to win one. Australia must start as favourites but England are improving.
"I have seen the best players, from the best seat in the house. There was the great West Indies side, and the current Australia side. I would like to see them play each other. I think I might have to go for the Aussies, since they have the added dimension of the spinner.
WARNE ACCOLADE
"Warne is the best spinner I have ever seen. I think Wasim Akram was the best left-armer I ever saw. He made the ball talk. The best cricket I ever saw was Warne bowling to Sachin Tendulkar in India. It was a wonderful contest."
Shepherd is almost as well known for his dance whenever the score reaches 111, or any multiple of that score.
English cricketing folklore suggests 111, known as the Nelson after British Admiral Horatio Nelson is an unlucky number often prompting the fall of a wicket. Shepherd compensates by hopping up and down on one leg until the score moves on.
"It started as a kid, back in club cricket. Load of nonsense, really, isn't it? When I played county cricket I used to do a little skip but nobody ever noticed. I carried on as an umpire, again nobody noticed.
"But in my second test at Edgbaston in 1985 somebody wrote in to the commentators and said: 'Watch this idiot when the score gets to 111.' The commentators told the world and then I was lumbered with it."
"I am superstitious. Friday the 13th is a terrible day. I have a matchstick attached to my little finger with a rubber band all day to combat it. Once I was umpiring at Lord's and I had a shower after the day's play, took the matchstick off and fell over in the shower."
The low point of Shepherd's 24-year umpiring career came in 2001, when England hosted Pakistan at Old Trafford. Off spinner Saqlain Mushtaq took three wickets with no-balls. Shepherd was so distraught over missing Saqlain's overstepping that he considered quitting the game.
He continued to be held in high esteem, though. The International Cricket Council, were willing to make an exception to their own rule of neutral umpires to allow Shepherd to end his career by umpiring in the first Ashes test at Lord's next month.
NO FUSS
"They did ask me, which was a great honour. But I didn't want to really, there's so much hype. And anyway, the players are the stars, not the umpires. I didn't want the fuss."
Shepherd, who lives in the village of Instow in Devon where he was born, says he does not know what he will do next, apart from trying to avoid getting under the feet of his long-term partner Jenny.
"I have no plans at all. Something will turn up. I'll probably stay in the game in some form, play a little golf. I don't think I'll umpire the village team. I support them but we're not very successful at the moment.
"Jenny doesn't like cricket. I'm amazed she's come to this last game. It'll be a learning curve for me. I haven't been home for long stretches for a long, long time. But the dog will be pleased.
"When I walk off at The Oval on Tuesday, there may be a little wave, if I have a good game. I hope there isn't a tear."
