Doug Wright (cricketer)

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Doug Wright England (ENG)

Batting style	Right-hand bat
Bowling type	Right arm leg-break
	Tests	First-class
Matches	34	497
Runs scored	289	5903
Batting average	11.11	12.34
100s/50s	-/-	-/16
Top score	45	84*
Balls bowled	8135	92960
Wickets	108	2056
Bowling average	39.11	23.98
5 wickets in innings	6	150
10 wickets in match	1	42
Best bowling	7/105	9/47
Catches/stumpings	10/-	182/-
Test debut: 10 June 1938 Last Test: 24 March 1951 Source: [1]

Douglas Vivian Parson Wright (born August 21, 1914, Sidcup, Kent; died November 13, 1998, Canterbury, Kent) was an English cricketer. He played first-class cricket for Kent for 25 years, from 1932 to 1957, and was their first professional captain from late 1953 to 1956. He also played in 34 Test matches for England.

He was a leg-spinner, but had a run-up as long as pace bowlers of his day (though actually comprised of leaps rather than steps) and actually delivered the ball at medium pace. Combined with his vicious back-of-the-hand spin, Wright on his best days was one of the most difficult to play of all English bowlers. However, as would be expected with a bowler trying to spin the ball at such a quick pace, Wright could also be very expensive. His early career was restricted by the monopoly of Tich Freeman on Kent's bowling honours, but after Freeman declined in 1936 Wright took his place very quickly. He did the hat-trick twice in 1937 and was seen as good enough to play for England in 1938. He bowled very well on a dusty wicket at Headingley, though hurt by fielding errors, and that winter went to South Africa.

1939 saw Wright advance so much that he was named a Cricketer of the Year by Wisden and produced two sensational performances: sixteen for 80 against Somerset and nine for 47 on a dusty wicket at Bristol against Gloucestershire. Wright also batted well enough to score 490 runs and had made 103 for once out in 1936 against Warwickshire, but his batting declined after the War. Though he became fixed among the "tail", he did make 66 at number 11 in 1955 against Warwickshire.

He served in the British Army during World War II, and the decimation of England's dry-wicket bowling by the war meant he became an automatic choice for the 1946/1947 Ashes tour. He took 23 wickets, but had little support and England were outclassed. 1947, with the dry pitches suiting him, proved Wright's best season, for he took 177 wickets including ten for 175 against South Africa at Lord's. However, the following two years were plagued by injury and Wright did little in the Tests, but he showed many times that he was still the most dangerous English bowler in dry weather - especially in terms of ability to dismiss top batsmen. In 1949 against Hampshire, Wright set a record of seven hat-tricks, and the following day he took 151 wickets including five for 141 at the Oval against the West Indies.

However, in order to regain supremacy in international cricket England captains began to change to tactics that emphasised reducing the ability for batsmen to score. In this context, Wright naturally was an expensive luxury - notably when his inaccuracy lost a tight game at the MCG that winter. Even then he did dismiss Australia's best batsmen, Hassett and Harvey, in the second Australian innings of the last test which England won. In 1951 Wright was never at his best in a damp summer, and on the hard wickets of 1952 his wickets cost six runs more than in 1947 or 1949. However, in August 1953 Wright became Kent's first professional captain, and in contrast to Hollies, the job seemed to help his bowling, for in 1954 with pitches totally unsuited he took 105 wickets and in 1955 he had one of his best seasons. At the Oval, he led Kent to an unexpected victory over Surrey when that county appeared certain to win. 1956, though was a total disaster and Wright did not take even fifty wickets, though once against Middlesex he bowled at his very best: Wisden commented:

- "most of his eight victims had not been born when Wright entered first-class cricket twenty-four years ago and they had no answer to his whipping leg-breaks and googlies".

At the beginning of 1957, Wright said he did not wish to be considered for the captaincy in his second benefit year, and in mid-July he decided to retire. A review of his career was provided in the article "Googly Bowlers and Captains Retire" in the 1958 Wisden. After retiring as a player, he became coach at Charterhouse School until 1971.