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Full name | Douglas Vivian Parson Wright | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born |
Sidcup, Kent, England |
21 August 1914|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 13 November 1998 Canterbury, Kent, England |
(aged 84)|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Batting style | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bowling style | Right arm leg break Right arm medium |
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International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Test debut (cap 302) | 10 June 1938 v Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last Test | 28 March 1951 v New Zealand | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1932–1957 | Kent | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: CricInfo, 10 March 2017 |
Douglas Vivian Parson Wright (21 August 1914, Sidcup, Kent – Canterbury, Kent 13 November 1998), better known as Doug Wright, was an English cricketer. A leg-spinner for Kent and England from 1932 to 1957 he took a record seven hat-tricks in first class cricket. He played for Kent for 19 seasons and was their first professional captain from late 1953 to 1956. Don Bradman said he was the best leg-spinner to tour Australia since Sydney Barnes, and Keith Miller thought he was the best leg-spinner he had seen apart from Bill O'Reilly. He toured Australia in 1946-47 and 1950-51, but was dogged by ill-luck and was considered to be the "unluckiest bowler in the world".
Cutting a leg-break is always dangerous, and cutting Wright is a form of suicide. Why a bowler of his skill failed to get more test-match wickets always mystified me; there was of course the marked tendency to bowl no-balls, but he sent down so many good ones, and worried and beat the batsmen so often, that he should have had better results...he seemed always likely to get wickets. It is one of the toughest problems of captaincy to know when to remove a man like that from the firing-line.
His early career was restricted by the monopoly of Tich Freeman on Kent's bowling honours, but after Freeman's powers declined in 1936, Wright took his place. He did the hat-trick twice in 1937, and was picked to play for England in 1938. He bowled well on a dusty wicket at Headingley, although his figures were hurt by fielding errors, and that winter went to South Africa.