da roleta： The name Keith Barker is familiar to a certain generation ofBarbadians
Tony Cozier24-Oct-2001The name Keith Barker is familiar to a certain generation ofBarbadians. It is likely to become far more widely known inthe coming years.Keith Barker was one of those outstanding all-roundsportsmen who were so plentiful prior to the recent age ofspecialisation.The youngest of his four sons, Keith junior, has alreadymade his mark as both cricketer and footballer inLancashire, England, where his father has lived since takingup a professional league cricket contract with the Enfieldclub in 1965.A fast bowler and effective lower order batsmen, Keithsenior was a stalwart in the BCL team in the annual matchagainst the BCA and good enough to play for Guyana while aprofessional with the Georgetown Cricket Club there. He alsorepresented Barbados in basketball and was a useful waterpolo player.There was never any doubt the sport the elder Barker wouldpursue. As with so many of his contemporaries, like SirGarry Sobers, Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith, cricket was theonly one that offered a career opportunity.In contrast, Keith junior, a student at Manchester’sMoorhead High School who turns 15 in a few days time, willeventually have to make the choice between cricket andfootball.A left-handed batsman, with 12 hundreds already in the book,and left-arm fast bowler, he was in the England under-15cricket team last season and turned out for Enfield, hisfather’s first Lancashire League club.As a left-side striker, he has been on the books of PremierLeague football club, Blackburn Rovers, since he was nine.He signed a new two-year contract at the club’s academy lastsummer.Keith senior, now 65, retired him his job with theLancashire county council and recently back in Barbados onholiday, was naturally enthusiastic about his son’sprospects. But he was careful not to overstate the case.He noted that his close friend, former West Indies captainand Lancashire player Clive Lloyd was Keith junior’sgodfather but he had deliberately not made much of theyoungster’s sporting prowess to him.”When Clive first saw him play last season, he wanted toknow why I hadn’t let him know he had a godson with suchpotential,” the elder Barker said.John Heaton, secretary of the Lancashire Schools CricketAssociation, is not inhibited by such paternal reticence.”Keith’s rather special,” he told the press last season.”It’s remarkable that a lad so young could have scored somany fifties and hundreds. You look back to the MikeAthertons, Andrew Flintoffs and Phil Nevilles and he looksbetter than all of them.”Atherton, Flintoff and Neville were all high-scoring batsmenwho came through the Lancashire school system.Atherton and Flintoff went on to play Test cricket forEngland. Neville, like his brother Gary, was also a topfootballer and he chose to join the better known club at OldTrafford, Manchester United, rather than the neighbouringLancashire County Cricket Club.It is a decision young Barker is likely to have to makeeventually. At the moment, his father said, he just wants tokeep on enjoying both sports.The inevitable question, of course, is which team will hechoose if he does realise the promise he now shows andbecomes a top cricketer. England, the country of his birth,or Barbados and the West Indies, the countries of hisheritage?”We kid about it sometimes and he has a real feeling for theWest Indies and West Indies cricket,” Keith senior said. “Nodoubt about it, I’d like him to play for the West Indies ifever the chance came around but that’s only hypotheticalright now.”