Former English cricketer Douglas Vivian Parson Wright was born on this day (21 August) in 1914. Dough Wright has been praised by many as the greatest-ever leg-spinner, including the legendary Don Bradman. However, he is considered one of the unluckiest cricketers and has also been embroiled in controversy.
Born in Sidcup, Wright played for Kent for 19 seasons and was their first professional captain from late 1953 to 1956. Remarkably, he is the only player in history to have taken seven hat-tricks in first-class cricket. Moreover, he grabbed 100 wickets in a season ten times.
He took hat-trick twice in 1937 and gained the interest of national team selectors. Wright made his international debut in 1938 against Australia at Headingley in Leeds. He continued to shine and even managed to make it to the Wisden Cricketers of the Year list. His figures of 16/80 against Somerset and 9/47 against Gloucestershire at Bristol were sensational. Before World War II, Wright was also a skilled batter.
During the 1945–47 tour of Australia, Wright was considered England’s trump card. But he had problems with no balls because of the odd run-up. For the same reason, he was an expensive bowler. Notably, he and Alec Bedser bowled almost 500 eight-ball overs in Australia in 1946-47.
Wright played his last Test match against New Zealand on 28 March 1951. Before hanging up his boots, the right-hander played 34 Test matches, scoring 289 runs and taking 108 wickets at an economy of 3.67 and an average of 39.11. He has six five-wicket hauls and one ten-fer to his credit.
Bradman considered Wright as the best leg-spinner to tour Australia since Sydney Barnes. Former Australia batter Keith Miller also voted Wright as the best leg-spinner he had seen apart from Bill O’Reilly. He succeeded George Geary as coach at Charterhouse in 1959. Wright passed away in 1998 at the age of 84.
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