Luke Sellers is a seriously good cricketer.

There are not too many club players who feature on Cricinfo but Luke’s exploits as a right-arm medium-fast bowler in Minor Counties cricket have been treated with due respect by the online cricketing bible.

Now player-coach for Cheltenham and preparing for a second season with the West of England Premier Two Glos/Wilts club, cricket has been a huge part of Luke’s life from an early age, whether it be as a player, coach or cricket volunteer working overseas.

For all his achievements as a player and coach – and there have been many – push Luke on what has given him most satisfaction in cricket and he will say it is his charity work.

The 33-year-old works with HIV/AIDS and cricket development charity Cricket Without Boundaries, an organisation that sees volunteers travel to Africa and help educate people through cricket.

“It’s something that’s very close to my heart,” said Luke. “It’s the most positive cricketing experience I’ve had. I’ve been on three trips – to Kenya twice and Uganda – for two weeks at a time and they have been incredible.

“I’ve worked with the Maasai Warriors in southern Kenya, commuted to work through elephants and giraffes and gone into schools expecting 50 children to be there and 500 turn up – and you’ve still got to coach them!

“Introducing people to cricket who otherwise would know nothing about it is worth everything.

“I’ve always been a big believer in the power of sport but these trips put a different perspective on everything and only enhanced that belief.

“Any chance I get I tell people how good this charity is and to be fair Gloucestershire is one of the best for sending out volunteers.”

Luke is one of life’s positive people. His early years were spent in Hertfordshire before he moved to the Forest of Dean with his family at the age of 10.

He’d already caught the cricketing bug before his move to Gloucestershire – his dad and uncle were keen cricketers – and it wasn’t long before his potential was spotted in this county by Andy Stovold, the former Gloucestershire cricketer, who saw him playing on a cricket course run during the school holidays.

Luke was soon at Wyedean Secondary School, the school that JK Rowling attended some years earlier, and was soon to open a new chapter in his cricketing story when he linked up with Gloucestershire’s under-11s along with his friend Mark Guest, who was also spotted by Stovold.

Luke and Mark have remained good friends and currently coach Gloucestershire’s under-14s.

Luke has positive memories of his time working through the age group ranks as a player with Gloucestershire. “They were good people,” he said. “Andy Stovold was the big figure but we had lots of different coaches. Stuart Barnes, who is now at Surrey, was one of those who coached us.

“It was always the dream to become a county cricketer, it was for all of us. I was always in the county age group teams and went to the South West regionals so I knew I was doing okay.

“But in those days there were no academies or Emerging Players programmes. There is a much better pathway into county cricket than there was then.

“I’m not saying that was the reason I didn’t make the step up into the first team – I think I have always been reasonably realistic about my limitations as a cricketer – and at 19 there was a natural parting of the ways.”

After leaving school and taking a year out, Luke enrolled at Cardiff MCC University for a three-year media and journalism course, primarily because it was a centre of cricketing excellence supported by the MCC.

“I was always hoping to pick up cricket again,” said Luke. “I played for Cardiff for two years and we played some good fixtures. We played pre-season friendlies against Worcestershire, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire and many more. We played against Graeme Hick – he didn’t get many against us. I think he got 11 but it was my new-ball partner who got him, not me!

“I got a five-wicket haul against Glamorgan but the games were not first-class unless you were at Oxford, Cambridge, Loughborough or Durham and that always riled me as we were all facing the same opposition.”

Ask him about his style of bowling and the modest Luke says: “I bowled right-hand dobblers.” When pressed he said: “I suppose I was a skiddy right-arm seamer. I always took the new ball.

“I remember playing against Glamorgan when Simon Jones was on one of his comebacks from injury.

“It was a 12-a-side game but only 11 batted and I’ve never been so pleased to be the one chosen not to bat. Jones was rapid and all the batsmen were coming back with red marks all over their bodies.”

Luke’s form for Cardiff had brought him back onto the radar of a number of counties and he had a handful of second team games for Gloucestershire as well as one for Glamorgan.

“I didn’t really give myself the best chance to succeed,” reflects Luke. “At that level it was all about individuals rather than the team and I don’t think my confidence was robust enough to deal with the environment as well as I would have liked.”

Luke took a step back from playing cricket in his third year at Cardiff. He had taken his first coaching badges at the age of 16 or 17 and put them to good use in Cardiff to help pay some student bills.

A winter spent in New Zealand post-university honing those coaching skills set him up nicely for his first proper job as a community cricket coach in Gloucestershire.

“I loved it,” said Luke. “I was out and about in the summer and it was great fun to help bring through the next generation of cricketers. This was the time that girls’ cricket was also starting to take hold so it was an enjoyable time.”

A couple of years working as a journalist was followed by a full-time role with Gloucestershire County Cricket Club working as a press officer as well helping to coach the county’s youngsters and he still works for the Gloucestershire Cricket Board today.

On the field Luke captained Chepstow from the age of 22 to 26 and his performances for them attracted the attention of Herefordshire, for whom he played for four years.

“That was my most enjoyable time playing high level cricket,” he said. “We were a proper team and it was a great experience to be part of it.

“Steve Adshead, who’d been wicketkeeper at Gloucestershire, was in the team. I’d always be asking him questions to improve my knowledge about the game and he was very generous with his time.

“I remember one year we reached the quarter-finals of the Minor Counties Cup when we played Cumberland. Gary Pratt, the bloke who ran out Ricky Ponting in the 2005 Ashes series, was in their side.

“They won and he got a 100 but he was dropped three times off my bowling. Losing to him is the only thing I’ve got in common with Ponting!”

Work commitments meant Luke could not play in many three-day games for Herefordshire and by 2012 he had accepted a position to become player-coach of Lechlade. Their chairman was Paul Rowley, who has since died in sad circumstances.

Luke remembers: “He was very ambitious for the club and his vision was for them to go as high as possible in club cricket in the West.

“It was a new challenge and it was sold to me over a curry. Paul was a real force of nature and I think a lot of us were ‘Paul Rowleyed’ into playing for Lechlade!”

Luke’s time at Lechlade was a huge success. They won two promotions and a County Cup when Luke took five wickets in the win over Bedminster in the final. Since his departure they have realised Paul Rowley’s dream by reaching Premier One in the West of England League, an achievement that delighted Luke.

Cheltenham-based Luke had already decided to leave Lechlade, partly due to the travelling and partly because he was about to become a dad for the first time, when Cheltenham came calling.

A position as player-coach, looking after only the seniors, ticked every box.

But before he had even set foot in his new changing room, however, Luke and his wife Catherine would have to face their greatest challenge.

Their son Arthur had serious complications when he was born. It was an incredibly tough time for both of them and their families but now that Arthur, now 17 months, has pulled through, Luke is happy to call him their “miracle baby”.

“He’s doing really well,” added Luke. “To go from where we were then to where we are now is just incredible.”

Just before the start of the 2016 cricket season, Luke ran three marathons in three days across the Cotswold Way to raise money for Southmead Hospital, where Arthur was nursed back to health.

“It was ridiculous, really,” said Luke, “because I’d never even run one marathon before!”

Cricket with Cheltenham was always going to be a breeze after that and, typically, Luke has nothing but positive things to say about the club.

“It’s been a fantastic experience,” he said, “except for the results in the second half of last season. It’s a very welcoming club.

“It has this reputation for being an elitist club but nothing could be further from the truth.

“They have a very committed group of players and the captain Will Simmons is a lovely guy. He deserves a lot of credit for the way Cheltenham play their cricket.”

And is there a downside to playing at the Victoria Ground?

“I wish the wickets were a little less flat,” came back the quick reply but said with a smile.

That’s probably as negative as you get with Luke Sellers... a seriously good cricketer and a seriously good bloke.