Ben Sealey


Benjamin James Sealey or Sealy 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 in the field. 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 in Trinidad, 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 Jackie 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 scored 12 runs in the second innings and took one wicket, that of Fred Bakewell, for 10 runs in England’s only innings. His scored three centuries on the tour: 103 against Worcestershire at Worcester, 105 not out against Glamorgan at Swansea and 106 not out against the Army at Aldershot.
The highest score of his first-class career came at Bridgetown in January 1939 when he hit 116 against the hosts, Barbados, to help Trinidad to a victory by an innings and 19 runs. 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 Marylebone Cricket Club in January 1935.
Sealey's death on 12 September 1963 in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, aged 64, went unreported in cricket circles and no obituary of him appeared in Wisden.