John Wright (cricketer, born 1954)

For other cricketers, see John Wright (disambiguation).

John Wright
MBE

Personal information
Full name	John Geoffrey Wright
Born	(1954-07-05) 5 July 1954 Darfield, New Zealand
Batting	Left-handed
Bowling	Right arm medium
Role	Batsman
International information
National side	New Zealand (1978–1993)
Test debut (cap 141)	10 February 1978 v England
Last Test	16 March 1993 v Australia
ODI debut (cap 28)	15 July 1978 v England
Last ODI	12 December 1992 v Sri Lanka
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1975/76–1983/84	Northern Districts
1977–1988	Derbyshire
1984/85–1988/89	Canterbury
1989/90–1992/93	Auckland
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA Matches 82 149 366 349 Runs scored 5,334 3,891 25,073 10,240 Batting average 37.82 26.46 42.35 30.84 100s/50s 12/23 1/24 59/126 6/68 Top score 185 101 192 108 Balls bowled 30 24 370 42 Wickets 0 0 2 1 Bowling average – – 169.50 18.00 5 wickets in innings – – 0 0 10 wickets in match – – 0 0 Best bowling – – 1/4 1/8 Catches/stumpings 38/– 51/– 192/– 108/–
Source: Cricinfo, 4 November 2016

John Geoffrey Wright MBE (born 5 July 1954) is a former international cricketer representing – and captaining – New Zealand. He made his international debut in 1978 against England.

During his career, he scored more than 5,000 Test runs (the first New Zealand Test player to do so) at an average of 37.82 runs per dismissal with 12 Test centuries, 10 of them in New Zealand. He also played for Derbyshire in England. In first-class cricket he scored over 25,000 runs, having scored over 50 first-class centuries. He scored over 10,000 runs in List A limited-overs cricket.

Following his retirement in 1993, he coached the Indian national cricket team from 2000 to 2005 (thus became India's first foreign coach) and New Zealand from 2010 to 2012.

Domestic career

John Wright played cricket for his school, Christ's College, scoring several centuries during his time there. When he was at Otago University, he would travel from Dunedin to Christchurch on the weekends to play club cricket in order to make the Canterbury Cricket team. Unable to make the Canterbury team, John Wright moved to Gisborne and played five first class games for Northern Districts in the 1975/76 season. At the end of the season, he travelled to England where he spent time playing club cricket and time training with the Kent team. Later in the 1976 season, he got the opportunity to play for the Kent second XI scoring 500 runs at an average of 52. Wright also played for Derrick Robins' XI against Kent scoring a century.

John Wright wrote to Derbyshire asking them for a trial on the basis that they were the only English county side without an overseas player. He was invited to play a couple of trial games. He played in a second XI game for Derbyshire against Nottinghamshire. Opening the batting John Wright proceeded to score 159 not out and then had success in the other trial games. As a result, Wright was offered a one year contract to play for Derbyshire for 1977. After five first class games for Derbyshire in 1977, John Wright received his county cap and a pay rise.

International career

John Wright typically opened for New Zealand, and was noted as a tenacious, rather than spectacular, batsman. His team nickname was "shake"; reputedly a reflection on his packing technique. Together with Bruce Edgar of Wellington, he formed what was arguably New Zealand's most successful and reliable opening partnership. During a match against Australia in 1980, he became the second player in history to score an eight off one ball in a Test, running four and collecting four overthrows. Toward the end of his career he used an unorthodox batting stance; whereas most batsman face the bowler with the bat in line with their legs, and perpendicular to the ground, Wright would stand with his bat raised in parallel to it.

John Wright was disappointed with his results from his first 20 odd test matches and after a discussion with Bob Willis, Wright started work with a sports psychologist. He eventually learnt transcendental meditation.

"Some people call it mental toughness, it wasn't mental toughness, it was just being mentally organised, being able to get out there and express yourself in a way you knew you were capable of but you made it hard for yourself because of the pressure you put on yourself".

As captain of New Zealand John Wright was described by Ian Smith as "He had an uncanny knack of bringing out the best in players, some of whom, I'm sure, thought they had already had their best days. I probably played my best cricket under John Wright's leadership; Martin Snedden and John Bracewell would be in the same category".

In the 1988 Queen's Birthday Honours, Wright was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to cricket.

Coaching career

After retiring, Wright worked in sales for around two years – self-confessedly without great success. After taking up coaching for Kent County Cricket Club, Wright enjoyed a successful coaching career with India, from 2000 to 2005, during which time the team improved immensely, winning a home test series 2–1 against Australia (which included the historic Kolkata test which India won coming back from a follow-on with Indian batsman VVS Laxman making 281*), drawing a test series against Australia in Australia 1–1 in a four-match test series in 2003–04 (Steve Waugh's farewell test series), winning a series against arch-rivals, Pakistan, and reaching the final of the 2003 Cricket World Cup held in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya. The following months saw the team lose form, and series to Australia and Pakistan. In May 2005, former Australian skipper, Greg Chappell took over from Wright.

Wright was also appointed as coach of the World XI team that played Australia in the ICC Super Series 2005.

An innings-by-innings breakdown of Wright's Test match batting career, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of the last ten innings (blue line).

On 20 December 2010, Wright was named as NZ Cricket Coach, replacing Mark Greatbatch. He resigned that role in 2012, following New Zealand's tour of the West Indies. New Zealand Cricket was keen for him to continue as coach but John Wright did not wish to continue. John Wright did not see eye to eye with John Buchanan, who was the Director of Cricket for New Zealand Cricket. "We see things a little differently," John Wright said on which he expanded "It would be fair to say we're probably more comfortable coaching against each other, which we did for four and a half years."

In January 2013 Wright was appointed head coach of the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League competition. The Mumbai Indians won that edition of the IPL.

John Wright has worked with the Mumbai Indians for seven years.

Music career

John Wright was known was always taking his guitar when on tour as a cricketer. He released his debut album Red Skies in 2017. The songs are about travelling as an international cricketer and coach. He is planning to release an EP of new songs titled Jump the Sun.

Publications

In 1990, together with New Zealand writer Paul Thomas, Wright wrote an entertaining autobiography, Christmas in Rarotonga. In 2006, Wright co-authored the book John Wright's Indian Summers describing his experiences as coach of the Indian cricket team, along with Indian journalist Sharda Ugra and Paul Thomas.

External links

• Official website of John Wright for his music
• John Wright at ESPNcricinfo

Sporting positions
Preceded by Jeff Crowe	New Zealand national cricket captain 1987/8–1990	Succeeded by Martin Crowe
Preceded by Anshuman Gaekwad	Indian National Cricket Coach November 2000 – April 2005	Succeeded by Greg Chappell