John Geoffrey Wright (born 5 July 1954) is a former international

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er who represented – and captained –

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. He made his international debut in 1978 against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. 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 A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

, 10 of them in New Zealand. He also played for

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

in England from 1977 to 1988. In

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

he scored more than 25,000 runs, including more than 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 The India men's national cricket team, also known as Team India or the Men in Blue, represents India in men's international cricket. It is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and is a List of International Cricket Cou ...

from 2000 to 2005 (thus becoming India's first foreign coach) and New Zealand from 2010 to 2012.

Domestic career

John Wright played cricket for his school, Christ's College, Christchurch, scoring several centuries. When he was studying at

Otago University , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate u ...

, he would travel from

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

on the weekends to play club cricket in order to make the Canterbury team. Unable to make the Canterbury team, he moved to Gisborne and played five first-class games for

Northern Districts The Northern Districts men's cricket team are one of six New Zealand first-class cricket teams that make up New Zealand Cricket. They are based in the northern half of the North Island of New Zealand (excluding Auckland). They compete in the ...

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 Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

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. Wright wrote to

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 he 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, he received his

county cap In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

and a pay rise.

International career

Wright typically opened the batting 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 In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...

to the ground, Wright would stand with his bat raised parallel to the ground. John Wright graph

Wright was disappointed with his results from his first 20-odd Test matches and after a discussion with

Bob Willis Robert George Dylan Willis (born Robert George Willis; 30 May 1949 – 4 December 2019) was an English cricketer, who represented England between 1971 and 1984. A right-handed fast bowler, Willis is regarded by many as one of the greatest fa ...

, he started work with a sports psychologist. He eventually learnt transcendental meditation. He commented: "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". Wright's Test teammate

Ian Smith Ian Douglas Smith (8 April 1919 – 20 November 2007) was a Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia (known as Southern Rhodesia until October 1964 and now known as Zimbabwe) from 1964 to 1 ...

said of Wright's captaincy of the team: "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 Martin Colin Snedden (born 23 November 1958) is a former New Zealand cricketer, who played 25 cricket tests, and 93 One Day Internationals, between 1980 and 1990. He was a member of New Zealand's seam bowling attack, alongside Richard Hadlee ...

and

John Bracewell John Garry Bracewell (born 15 April 1958) is a former New Zealand cricketer who was most recently the coach of the Irish national team. He played 41 Test matches between 1980 and 1990, as well as 53 One Day Internationals. He was the second N ...

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 The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, 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 Vangipurapu Venkata Sai Laxman (; born 1 November 1974) is a former Indian international cricketer and a former cricket commentator and pundit. A right-hand batsman known for his elegant stroke play, Laxman played as a middle-order batsman in T ...

making 281

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

), drawing a four-match Test series against Australia 1–1 in Australia in 2003–04 (

Steve Waugh Stephen Rodger Waugh (born 2 June 1965) is an Australian former international cricketer and twin brother of cricketer Mark Waugh. A right-handed batsman, he was also a medium-pace bowler. As Australian captain from 1997 to 2004, he led Austral ...

's farewell Test series), winning a series against arch-rivals Pakistan, and reaching the final of the

2003 Cricket World Cup The 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup was the eighth Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya from 9 February to 23 March 2003. This edition of the World Cup was the ...

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 Gregory Stephen Chappell (born 7 August 1948) is a former cricketer who represented Australia at international level in both Tests and One-Day Internationals (ODI). The second of three brothers to play Test cricket, Chappell was the pre-eminen ...

took over from Wright. Wright was also appointed as coach of the World XI team that played Australia in the ICC Super Series 2005. On 20 December 2010, Wright was named as New Zealand's 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 Wright did not wish to do so. He 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," Wright said. "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 The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

. The Mumbai Indians won that edition of the IPL. Wright has worked with the Mumbai Indians for seven years.

Music career

Wright always took 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 autobiography, ''Christmas in Rarotonga''. In 2006, along with Indian journalist Sharda Ugra and Paul Thomas, Wright co-authored the book ''

John Wright's Indian Summers ''John Wright's Indian Summers'' (2007, ) is a book authored by John Wright describing his experiences as coach of Indian national cricket team The India men's national cricket team, also known as Team India or the Men in Blue, represents I ...

'' describing his experiences as coach of the Indian team.

References

External links

Official website of John Wright
for his music * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, John New Zealand cricketers New Zealand Test cricketers New Zealand Test cricket captains New Zealand One Day International cricketers New Zealand One Day International captains Auckland cricketers Canterbury cricketers Derbyshire cricketers Northern Districts cricketers Cricketers at the 1979 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 1983 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 1987 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 1992 Cricket World Cup 1954 births Living people Coaches of the Indian national cricket team Indian Premier League coaches New Zealand cricket coaches New Zealand Members of the Order of the British Empire People from Darfield, New Zealand Coaches of the New Zealand national cricket team D. H. Robins' XI cricketers North Island cricketers Cricketers from Canterbury, New Zealand