David Sheppard, former Bishop of Liverpool and England cricketer has died:
The three strands of David Sheppard's life - cricket, the church and social reform - were all drawn together in an incident at Chequers in 1987.For Sheppard's career details and profile, see here. See also the piece here:Baroness Thatcher, then prime minister, was berating him for his senior role in writing the Church of England report Faith in the City. The report had condemned what many churchmen saw as the social divisiveness of the 1980s and took on Thatcher at the height of her power.
Sheppard said of the lunch (at which he had compounded his sin by turning up late): "It was like being heckled... My mouth went dry as I remembered it doing once when facing the Australian fast bowlers, but I kept going."
In the 60s, Sheppard became a leading figure in the fight to get apartheid South Africa banned from international cricket. When he refused to captain the Duke of Norfolk's XI against the visiting South Africans at the start of their tour in 1960, he became the first Test cricketer to make a public stand on the issue. The tour began just a month after the Sharpeville massacre, and in his book the question Sheppard says he asked himself was: "Should a Christian cricketer go on playing with whites, as though nothing had happened?" His answer, which was headline news and led to friction with fellow players, was a resounding no.And this appreciation by Christopher Martin-Jenkins.