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
Sporting boycott of South Africa during the apartheid era 1980 by the British Lions and by France, in 1981 by Ireland, and in 1984 by England. In 1986, though a Lions tour was cancelled, South Africans played in all-star matches in Cardiff and in London marking the IRB centenary. South Africa was excluded from the first two Rugby World Cups, in 1987 and 1991. South Africa was suspended from FIFA in 1963. Stanley Rous, FIFA's President, went to negotiate its reinstatement. The South African FA proposed entering an all-white team in the 1966 World Cup and an all-black team in the 1970 World Cup. This proposal was rejected. The