Brit off the old block

The name Keith Barker is familiar to a certain generation of Barbadians. It is likely to become far more widely known in the coming years.

Keith Barker was one of those outstanding all-round sportsmen who were so plentiful prior to the recent age of specialisation.

The youngest of his four sons, Keith junior, has already made his mark as both cricketer and footballer in Lancashire, England, where his father has lived since taking up a professional league cricket contract with the Enfield club in 1965.

A fast bowler and effective lower order batsmen, Keith senior was a stalwart in the BCL team in the annual match against the BCA and good enough to play for Guyana while a professional with the Georgetown Cricket Club there. He also represented Barbados in basketball and was a useful waterpolo player.

There was never any doubt the sport the elder Barker would pursue. As with so many of his contemporaries, like Sir Garry Sobers, Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith, cricket was the only one that offered a career opportunity.

In contrast, Keith junior, a student at Manchester's Moorhead High School who turns 15 in a few days time, will eventually have to make the choice between cricket and football.

A left-handed batsman, with 12 hundreds already in the book, and left-arm fast bowler, he was in the England under-15 cricket team last season and turned out for Enfield, his father's first Lancashire League club.

As a left-side striker, he has been on the books of Premier League football club, Blackburn Rovers, since he was nine. He signed a new two-year contract at the club's academy last summer.

Keith senior, now 65, retired him his job with the Lancashire county council and recently back in Barbados on holiday, was naturally enthusiastic about his son's prospects. But he was careful not to overstate the case.

He noted that his close friend, former West Indies captain and Lancashire player Clive Lloyd was Keith junior's godfather but he had deliberately not made much of the youngster's sporting prowess to him.

"When Clive first saw him play last season, he wanted to know why I hadn't let him know he had a godson with such potential," the elder Barker said.

John Heaton, secretary of the Lancashire Schools Cricket Association, 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 so many fifties and hundreds. You look back to the Mike Athertons, Andrew Flintoffs and Phil Nevilles and he looks better than all of them."

Atherton, Flintoff and Neville were all high-scoring batsmen who came through the Lancashire school system.

Atherton and Flintoff went on to play Test cricket for England. Neville, like his brother Gary, was also a top footballer and he chose to join the better known club at Old Trafford, Manchester United, rather than the neighbouring Lancashire County Cricket Club.

It is a decision young Barker is likely to have to make eventually. At the moment, his father said, he just wants to keep on enjoying both sports.

The inevitable question, of course, is which team will he choose if he does realise the promise he now shows and becomes a top cricketer. England, the country of his birth, or Barbados and the West Indies, the countries of his heritage?

"We kid about it sometimes and he has a real feeling for the West Indies and West Indies cricket," Keith senior said. "No doubt about it, I'd like him to play for the West Indies if ever the chance came around but that's only hypothetical right now."