THERE was a national story doing the rounds the other day concerning the Chinese government’s encouragement of its citizens to take up cricket.

Considering there are about a billion and a bit of them, that could mean Les Bishop has found a whole new country to conquer.

Mind you, he’s 84 now and might defer the challenge of explaining the complexities of a googly to a lad from Guangdong, but 30 years ago it might have been very different.

Because Les has probably taught more Worcestershire youngsters the skills of the game than anyone else. His role as a youth cricket coach has seen players including current Worcestershire County Cricket Club captain Daryl Mitchell, former stars Tim Curtis, Damien D’Oliveira, Martin Weston and Stuart Lampitt, plus Paul Bent, Steve McEwan and Gavin Haynes etc all benefit from his advice.

“They were brilliant lads,” he said, “and I’m proud of what they’ve achieved.

“The only one I had any trouble with – and trouble’s not really the right word – was Dean Headley.

“He’d come back after spending time with his father Ron and the other West Indian stars and say something like, ‘I’ve just been talking to Viv Richards and he says....’ I couldn’t compete with that!”

As a cricket coach it might be tempting to label Les, who lives in Warndon Villages, Worcester, an unsung hero. After all, he’s never hit the headline for scoring centuries or taking “five for’s”.

But in fact accolades have regularly landed on his shoulders, stretching right back to 1986 when he was awarded the Torch Trust Trophy for services to cricket.

Over the following years there were numerous recognitions and nearly all carried mentions of his “outstanding contribution” to the sport.

However, the icing on the cake was the English Cricket Board Coaches Association/Sky Sports award for outstanding contribution and services to cricket coaching given to him this winter.

The citation on which the ECB panel based its decision concluded: “The game of cricket and Worcestershire cricket in particular owes him a great debt and there cannot be a more worthy contender for the lifetime achievement award.”

Although all the tributes for Les’s youth coaching involve his work in Worcestershire, he was born in the great cricketing county of Middlesex, where, in his growing up years of the 1930s and 40s, heroes such as Denis Compton and Bill Edrich bestrode the Test scene.

He played for his school and then, during National Service, for RAF teams. “I was a tearaway fast bowler in the Bill Edrich style,” he said.

Club cricket followed and the Bishops were a real cricketing family. While Les played, father umpired and mother made cricket teas. However, it wasn’t until his job in factory management brought him to Worcestershire in the late 1960s and he joined Bewdley Cricket Club in 1970 that Les turned to coaching.

“Worcestershire Cricket Association had just conducted a club survey to find out which had youth sections, and there were not many,” he said. “Then Bob Duff, the Bewdley club president and vice-chairman of the WCA, asked me about the possibility of starting a youth section at the club.

“He never told me why he thought I could do it, after all at that time I was a player, not a coach.”

But Mr Duff’s intuitions were correct. As it happened, Bewdley CC had just moved to a new ground and this allowed the club to field extra teams.

“More players were needed,” said Les, “so we canvassed the local schools and club members, telling them that at the beginning of the 1971 season we would arrange a youth evening.

“We weren’t sure what to expect, but the response amazed us. About 70 children, boys and girls, aged from nine to about 17 turned up.

“The ground was covered with children all wanting to learn how to play cricket. It took us utterly by surprise. Remember, this was in the days before iPhones, iPads and all the rest of the things youngsters seem to occupy their time with now, but even so we weren’t expecting that.”

In 1973, the WCA asked Les to form a committee to look into the promotion of youth cricket in the county and the following year he joined with former Worcestershire CCC fast bowler Bob Carter, who had been appointed national cricket coach for the West Midlands, to organise several coaching demonstrations and discussions with local clubs about youth cricket.

“That was really the beginning of getting the clubs involved and led to the introduction of the Coaching Award course, which runs to this day,” said Les.

From then on, the structure of youth cricket and coaching in Worcestershire just grew and grew and the committees, teams and initiatives Les has been involved in would fill a thousand scorebooks.

Ironically, considering the impact his knowledge and coaching techniques have had on generations of youngsters, he has only been on a couple of coaching courses in his life – one in the early days and a refresher a few years later.

“It’s all in here,” he said, tapping his head. Proof that an empathy with your audience is worth more than sheer sporting ability.

Otherwise Ian Botham would be the best coach English cricket never had.

During his long and illustrious career, Les coached both boys and girls, so which was easier? “Girls, without a doubt,” he replied.

“By and large they came with no preconceptions. Boys invariably had their heroes and wanted to be like them or it would be a case of, ‘My dad says...’ So I would have to tell them, ‘Forget what your dad says, I’m teaching you now’.”

Which worked OK until he came across Dean Headley.