David Sheppard his clerical career and declined to tour unless required as a captain. In 1956 he was recalled to play Australia and made 113 in the Fourth Test at Old Trafford, where Jim Laker famously took 19 wickets and England won by an innings. He refused to play against the touring South Africans in 1960, and was a vocal opponent of the proposed MCC tour in 1968–69 which was ultimately cancelled after the South African government refused to allow Basil D'Oliveira to play. Sheppard was willing to take a sabbatical from his church mission in the East End in order to
South Africa women's national cricket team cut their ties with the country, exclusion from the 1964 and 1968 Olympics were followed by expulsion from the Olympic Movement in 1970. Later in the same year South African athletes were suspended from international competition by the International Amateur Athletics Federation. The invitation for the South African men's tour of England was initially maintained, but threats of physical disruption to matches from anti-apartheid militants saw the British government step-in to cancel the tour. In May 1970, the Cricket Council made the decision that there should be no further tours to and from South Africa until cricket within the country