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
D'Oliveira affair middle of the street. The South Africa cricket team was due to tour England shortly afterwards, and the MCC remained keen for the series to go ahead. They cancelled the tour a week before the South Africans were due to arrive, following public protests and pressure from the UK government. Virulent anti-apartheid demonstrations in Australia during the South Africa rugby team's 1971 tour led to soaring police costs, matches played behind fences and barbed wire, and a state of emergency in Queensland, all of which prompted the Australian Cricket Board to cancel the tour by the South Africa cricket team