Obituary: David Sheppard

The Rt Rev Lord David Sheppard believed he served God in playing cricket.

* David Sheppard, churchman, test cricketer. Died aged 75.

The Rt Rev Lord Sheppard of Liverpool has died of cancer a day before his 76th birthday.

David Sheppard became, during a resolute life, an English cricket captain, a bishop critical of Government policies and unemployment and a staunch opponent of apartheid.

Back in 1962 there was some public angst over the Reverend David Sheppard's possibly captaining the English cricket team to Australia.

The Daily Sketch's sports writer worried whether, if made captain, Sheppard could put up with the "Aussies' sometimes earthy humour".

Such publicity led Sheppard, a deeply committed Christian and successful cricketer since the early 1950s, into discussing the place of the Church and cricket with the Daily Express. He declared that the root of his whole belief in God was that God was interested in the ordinary things in life.

"And is God interested in cricket?" asked the reporter.

"Yes," said Sheppard - adding that God wanted people to serve Him in doing the ordinary things.

"That does not mean that before a match I pray to make a century. I believed I am serving God just as well if I score a duck. What I do pray is that God would be honoured by the way I play or live - whatever I am doing."

Altogether Sheppard played in 22 test matches over 13 years, making 1172 runs at an average of 37.80. Overall in 230 first-class matches he scored 15,838 runs, averaging 45.75 with 45 centuries.

An elegant opening batsman in the Cambridge tradition he was at his prime from 1951 to 1953, scoring more than 2000 runs each year and compiling 24 centuries in the process.

Once the "cricketing curate" began training for the priesthood in 1953, it seemed that cricket would be confined to vacations.

But despite very strong English batting in that era (Hutton, May, Compton, Graveney and the like) Sheppard would still add the captaincy of England to his laurels, and make two centuries against Australia.

Those who regarded Sheppard as the epitome of polite, inoffensive Anglican respectability were surprised that he worked in the London docklands and later became Anglican Bishop of Liverpool in 1975, worried by the gap between the Church and the working class.

Sheppard also proved a sharp critic of the Thatcher Government's policies, especially the resulting unemployment and poverty in areas like Liverpool. The stand may have cost him the chance to become Archbishop of Canterbury.

He was resolute over apartheid in South Africa and refused to play against that country.

He is survived by his wife, Grace, and a daughter, Jenny.