Ben Sealey
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| Batting style | Right-hand bat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Right-arm medium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Benjamin James Sealey (12 August 1899 – 12 September 1963) was a West Indian cricketer whose career spanned the years 1924 to 1941. He was an attacking, middle-order batsman, a medium-pace, leg-break bowler and an athletic fielder anywhere on the pitch. Despite once turning out for a "Barbados-born" side against the Rest of West Indies, Sealey was a Trinidad player through and through.
Biography
Ben Sealey was born on the Caribbean island at St. Joseph. He was into his mid-twenties by the time his first-class career started but in 1933 he was selected to tour England with a West Indian team captained by G.C. Grant. His tour was both busy, in terms of matches played, and reasonably successful with both bat and ball. From 22 first-class matches – he also played in 12 minor matches – Sealey scored 1,072 runs at an average of 39.70 and took 19 wickets at 38.15 apiece. He was picked to play in the third and final Test of the series, the only Test of his career, and was West Indies' top scorer in the first innings, hitting 29 from a total of 100. He added a further 12 runs for the visitors in their second innings and took one wicket, that of A.H. Bakewell, for a total of 10 runs in England’s only innings. His various times at the crease in England and Wales produced three scores over a century; 103 against Worcestershire at Worcester, 105 not out against Glamorgan at Swansea and 106 not out against the Army at Aldershot. But the highest score of his career came at Bridgetown, in January 1939 when he hit 116 against the hosts to help Trinidad to a victory by an innings and 19 runs. With the ball, he twice took five wickets in an innings; five for 22 at Bridgetown for Trinidad against Barbados in January 1932 and five for 26 at Port-of-Spain for Trinidad against the touring M.C.C. in January 1935.
Sealey's death on 12 September 1963 in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, aged 64, went unreported at the time and therefore no obituary of him appeared within the covers of Wisden.
References
- World Cricketers - A Biographical Dictionary by Christopher Martin-Jenkins, published by Oxford University Press (1996).
- The Wisden Book of Test Cricket, Volume 1 (1877–1977), compiled and edited by Bill Frindall, Headline Book Publishing (1995).
- The Complete Record of West Indian Test Cricketers by Bridgette Lawrence & Ray Goble, ACL & Polar Publishing (UK) Ltd. (1991).
- www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players.