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 national cricket team was managed by Major R. G. Warton and captained by future Hollywood actor C. Aubrey Smith. The tour marked the advent, retrospectively, of both first-class and Test cricket in South Africa. Currie donated the Currie Cup (originally called the Kimberley Cup) that became the trophy, first won by Transvaal in 1889–90, for a national championship of the provincial teams in South Africa. In 1889, South Africa became the third test-playing nation when it played against England at Port Elizabeth, captained by Owen Robert Dunnell. Soon after, a 2nd test was played at Cape Town. However, these two matches, as was