HAVING seen Harry Brook’s recent stellar run of form for Yorkshire – along with the success of Matthew Revis and George Hill, natives of Steeton and Keighley respectively – I was curious as to whether there had ever been so many players from this area in and around the Yorkshire first XI at any one time.

This led me to the Cricket Archive website to conduct a full search of Yorkshire players who have represented the first team, to discover that in total there have been 18 players from Keighley and the surrounding areas who have represented Yorkshire – from EB Butterfield in 1870, through to James Mukherjee in 2021. This puts Keighley towards the top of the list of the most productive towns for Yorkshire cricketers, especially outside of the big population centres such as Leeds, Bradford and Sheffield.

What is also striking is the number of current Yorkshire players from the local area, with five players in the Yorkshire set-up (Brook, Revis, Hill, Luxton and Mukherjee). This is the most the region has ever had to have represented Yorkshire in any one period, which marks it out as a true golden age for Keighley-born cricketers.

Should one of the current crop make the England Test team, they would be the first Keighley-born player to represent England at Test level and, having made his limited overs debut over the winter, Harry Brook looks likely to be the first to take that honour. Should he become Yorkshire’s captain, he would be the second Keighley-born captain of Yorkshire, after Brian Sellers who captained Yorkshire to much success during the 1930s and 40s – leading the club to three consecutive championship titles and winning Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1940.

Robert McHugh, Oxenhope

* Email your letters to alistair.shand@keighleynews.co.uk