Former England captain David Sheppard, ex-Bishop of Liverpool and a member of the House of Lords, has died of cancer. He was 75.
Sheppard, who won 22 England caps between 1950 and 1963 and captained his country in two Tests against Pakistan in 1954, died at his home outside Liverpool on Saturday night after a long illness. He would have been 76 on Sunday.
A right-handed batsman, he played county cricket for Surrey and was ordained at the age of 26 in 1955, becoming Bishop of Woolwich in London in 1969 and Bishop of Liverpool six years later.
He was very active in issues concerning the urban poor and was awarded a life peerage on his retirement in 1997.
Sheppard was a leading figure in the fight to have apartheid South Africa banned from international cricket.
When Sheppard refused to captain the Duke of Norfolk's XI against the touring South Africans in 1960, he became the first Test cricketer to make a public stand over apartheid.
He captained Cambridge University and was 21 when he skippered Sussex.
Sheppard made his Test debut against West Indies at The Oval in 1950 and would probably have won more than 22 caps for England had he not decided the church came first. His last Test was against New Zealand in Christchurch on a 1962/3 tour.
He scored 1,172 Test runs including three centuries at an average of 37.8. He totalled 45 centuries in first class cricket.
He was an occasional slow left-arm bowler and took 12 catches in Tests and 194 in first class games as a fielder.
Also read:
- The bishop who played cricket
