Joe's Just Always Been A Bit Special

Guy Williams speaks to two characters who were key in the development of England’s Test captain

- Guy Williams

When England-skipper, Joe Root, 26, tosses up with his opposite number Steve Smith at the start of the Ashes series in Brisbane this coming Thursday, back home two Yorkshire-born coaches, who played important roles in Root’s development, will be watching him proud as punch.

Kevin Sharp, 58, now Worcestershire’s batting coach and a former Yorkshire batsman (1976-1991), was Yorkshire’s batting coach from 2003 until 2011 and supervised Root’s first net session at Headingley’s indoor school when the future England captain, then 12, arrived from Sheffield.

A few years later, Root was awarded a sports scholarship by Worksop College, an independent school in North Nottinghamshire, and not far from his home at Abbeydale in Sheffield. So between 2006 and 2008, Joe’s natural ability and huge potential were encouraged by Worksop’s Director of Sport and Cricket Ian Parkin and groundsman and coach Allan Kettleborough, now 80, who has just retired after almost 30 years at the school.

A former Yorkshire Seconds batsman and experienced Yorkshire League cricketer with Sheffield United and Rotherham Town, who also appeared in the Huddersfield League and the Bassetlaw League, Kettleborough worked closely with Yorkshire as their prized possession grew into a batsman of rare class and quality.

“I knew straightaway that Joe was going to be a good bat. For a lad who was only 12, he had the X-factor about him,” remembers Sharp.

“He had a remarkable knowledge of the game. Joe chatted like an adult, knew his strengths and weaknesses and drove his own net session by telling me to challenge him.

“After the first net, I went to see Ian Dews, in charge of the Yorkshire academy, and told him Joe would eventually open for Yorkshire. I’d seen how smart technically he was. Joe was a bit special, was a thinker and was the full package as a lad and as a cricketer.