Captain Extraordinary

By Brian Sanderson

Even Wisden spells his name incorrectly .It should be Brian Sellers.

Arthur Brian Sellers died on the 22 February 1981 just 11 days
 short of his 74th birthday.
 He set standards of captaincy which arguably,have not
been matched by latter day English county captains, other than
 maybe Stuart Surridge. .In his nine seasons ,beginning in 1933
 and ending in 1947
Yorkshire won the county championship six times.

Although in attitude in an era when discipline was not considered
anti-social.He was surrounded in the Yorkshire team by players of
much greater cricketing talents but quickly overcame their
 suspicions of this newcomer to their ranks and grew to
 admire his forthright leadership.

When  Hedley Verity took 17 wickets against Essex in a day
at Leyton in 1933,Sellers took seven catches of the England
left arm bowler,in the neighbourhood of silly mid-off and
forward short leg.

Sellers completed 1000 runs in a season three times.Scored
his first class century against the Australians at Brammell
Lane in 1934.Subsequently he added a further hundreds
against Kent, Nottingham and Cambridge University at
Fenners where he made 204.
In his 334 matches for Yorkshire he scored 8949 runs.

He served as a Test selector ,for varying times between
1938 and 1955.

When he was Chairman of the club he made many
 decisions which effected it for many years.
What would have happen if he had renewed Illingworth's
contract and not sacked Close.

Bill Bowes tribute to him was"His entire life was cricket
He was a great character"

The photograph above is wine glasses given Sellers on his wedding by the
players.There are autographs and caricatures of the team.It can be seen
in the Cricket Museum at Headingley when it reopens.





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