Wisden overview
A dark, hirsute, hostile and immensely strong fast-medium bowler, Mike Selvey developed from modest beginnings with Cambridge and Surrey into one of the most consistent opening bowlers in England. Able to swing the ball both ways in the air, he often got a warpish pace and bounce off the pitch: a horrible man to face on a moist and cloudy morning at Lord's.

He had a sensational start to his Test career: because of injuries to numerous other fast bowlers he was called up at the 11th hour to play at Old Trafford against the immensely gifted West Indies team of 1976, and proceeded to dismiss Fredericks, Richards and Kallicharran with his first 20 balls, finishing with 4 for 41. He toured India the following winter without doing enough to earn more than one further cap.

A safe but by modern standards ponderous fielder, he played with a straight bat and made some useful scores. He was captain of Glamorgan from 1983 to 1984. An intense and intelligent man, he became cricket correspondent of The Guardian, upholding a great tradition. He became a good, and very keen, golfer.
Christopher Martin-Jenkins

Adapted by Wisden from World Cricketers: A Biographical Dictionary (Oxford, 1996).

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