Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Full name | Kevin John Wright | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | North Fremantle, Western Australia | 27 December 1953|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Role | Wicket-keeper | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Test debut(cap 301) | 27 January 1979 v England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last Test | 3 November 1979 v India | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ODI debut(cap 54) | 4 February 1979 v England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last ODI | 16 June 1979 v Canada | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1974/75–1979/80 | Western Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1980/81–1983/84 | South Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source:Archive,16 October 2013 |
Kevin John Wright (born 27 December 1953) is an Australian former Test cricketer.
Wright played as a wicket-keeper,making 10 Test and five One Day International appearances for Australia in 1979 during the World Series Cricket era. He replaced John Maclean after the Fourth Test in the 1978–79 Ashes series,and played the last two Tests of that series,both Tests against Pakistan in Australia shortly afterwards,and all six Tests in India in late 1979,playing all his 10 Tests inside 10 months. [1]
After World Series Cricket ended,he lost his place in the Australian and Western Australian teams to Rod Marsh. He moved to South Australia to continue his first-class career. When Wayne Phillips became South Australia's wicket-keeper in 1984,Wright retired from first-class cricket and moved to Sydney,taking up the position of Eagle Insurance's life division manager for New South Wales. [2] In his last match for South Australia he captained them to victory in the McDonald's Cup limited-overs cricket final in 1983–84. [3]
Wright grew up in West Australia where Rod Marsh was the established keeper. He made his first class debut in 1974/75 against the touring English side. [4] He also managed to play several games for WA during the 1976/77 season when Marsh was touring New Zealand for Australia.
When Rod Marsh joined World Series Cricket,he was banned from playing first class cricket in Australia. Wright got the chance to establish himself as West Australia's regular keeper in the 1977/78 season. [5] It was a successful one for WA,as they won the Sheffield Shield. Wright scored 211 runs at an average of 35 with a top score of 59. [6]
Steve Rixon was Australia's wicketkeeper during the 1977–78 season against India and on the tour of the West Indies. In 1978-79 he was replaced by John Maclean.
After four tests,Maclean fell injured and Wright was picked to take his place for the 5th test. [7] At that stage he had made 83 dismissals. [8]
Wright scored 29 (Australia's second highest score in the first innings) and 0. [9] Wright kept his spot for the two on day games against England which followed (which Australia won), [10] [11] and sixth test,scoring 3 and 5 in another Australian defeat. [12]
He was kept as keeper for the next two tests against Pakistan. In the first,Wright took seven dismissals and scored 9 and 1 with the bat. [13] [14]
In the second,he took seven dismissals and scored 16 in a then-rare Australian victory. [15]
Wright scored 300 first class runs that summer at an average of 17 but he took 57 dismissals (53 caught,4 stumping).
Wright kept his spot for the 1979 tours of England for the World Cup,and the six-test series in India. [16] [17]
In the World Cup Wright scored 6 against England, [18] 23 against Pakistan [19] and did not bat against Canada. [20]
In India he scored 52 in an opening tour game. [21] He made 20 and 5 in the first test,disappointing captain Kim Hughes. [22] [23] He made a fighting 16 in the second test, [24] 6 and 11 in the third, [25] a much-praised double of 55 and 15 in the fourth, [26] [27] 0 and 12 in the fifth [28] and 11 and 5 in the 6th. [29]
On Wright's return to Australia,the World Series players had been re-incorporated with the establishment. Wright lost his spot in the West Australian and Australian teams to Rod Marsh. [30] Marsh's absence on international duty however meant he still played eight first class games scoring 322 runs at 35 (top score 88) and taking 34 dismissals. He won a man of the match award for A Shield game against Tasmania taking seven dismissals and scoring 55. [31] The Australian selectors however named Victoria Richie Robinson as the back up keeper for Marsh on the 1980 tour of Pakistan. [32]
In 1980-81 Wright moved to South Australia. He scored 399 runs at 28 including his first first-class century,105,and took 27 dismissals. However,on the 1981 Ashes he was overlooked for selection as the second keeper in favour of Steve Rixon.
Wright won a Sheffield Shield with South Australia in 1981–82. He had a great season,his best with the bat (392 runs at 39.2 including a top score of 104 not out,32 dismissals) and stayed with them for two more seasons. In 1982-83 he made 455 runs at 30.33 and the following season 164 runs at 16.40. He also captained the side in the absence of David Hookes. South Australia had a disappointing Shield season in 1983-84 but Wright led the team to victory in the McDonalds Cup. [33]
In 1983-84 South Australian batsman Wayne Phillips was made wicketkeeper for South Australia in some one day games. In early 1984 Phillips became Australia's test wicketkeeper during the tour of the West Indies. Initially South Australia said that Wright would be keeper and vice captain the state side during the 1984–85 season,prompting Phillips to consider a move to WA. [34] However,in September Wright retired from first class cricket. [35]
Graham Neil Yallop is a former Australian international cricketer. Yallop played Test and One Day International cricket for the Australia national cricket team between 1976 and 1984,captaining the side briefly during the World Series Cricket era in the late 1970s. A technically correct left-handed batsman,Yallop played domestically for Victoria,invariably batting near the top of the order and led Victoria to two Sheffield Shield titles. He was the first player to wear a full helmet in a Test match.
Raymond James Bright is a former Australian Test and One Day International cricketer from Victoria. He was a left arm spin bowler and lower order batsman who captained Victoria for a number of seasons. He was also an Australian vice-captain.
Gregory Charles Dyer is a former New South Wales and Australian wicketkeeper. Dyer played in six Tests and 23 ODIs from 1986 to 1988,including playing in the victorious 1987 World Cup Final. He toured India in 1986 as a back-up keeper.
Wayne Bentley Phillips is a former Australian cricketer who played in 27 Test matches and 48 One Day Internationals (ODIs) between 1982 and 1986 as a batsman and wicket-keeper. He played for South Australia between 1978 and 1991.
Rodney Malcolm Hogg is a former Victorian,South Australian and Australian cricketer. He was a fast bowler. Hogg played in 38 Test matches and 71 One Day Internationals between 1978 and 1985. In Tests he took 123 wickets at an average of 28.47. He is best remembered for taking 41 wickets in his first six tests during the 1978–79 Ashes.
Bruce Yardley was an Australian cricketer who played in 33 Test matches and seven One Day Internationals between 1978 and 1983,taking 126 Test wickets.
Richard Bede McCosker is a former Australian cricketer.
Stephen John Rixon is an Australian cricket coach and former international cricketer. He played in 13 Test matches and six One Day Internationals between 1977 and 1985. He has coached the New Zealand cricket team,New South Wales cricket team,Surrey County Cricket Club,Hyderabad Heroes and the Chennai Super Kings of the Indian Cricket League and was the fielding coach of the Australian national cricket team,Pakistan national cricket team and Sri Lanka national cricket team.
Bruce Malcolm Laird is a former Western Australian and Australian cricketer. He was an opening batsmen who played in 21 Test matches and 23 One Day Internationals. He also played 13 "Supertests" in World Series Cricket.
Geoffrey Dymock is an Australian former international cricketer. He played in 21 Test matches and 15 One Day Internationals between 1974 and 1980. On his debut,he took five wickets in the second innings against New Zealand in Adelaide in 1974. He was the third bowler to dismiss all eleven opposition players in a Test match,and remains one of only six bowlers to have achieved this.
Peter Raymond Sleep is a former Australian cricketer who played 14 Test matches for Australia between 1979 and 1990.
Alan Turner is a former Australian cricketer. He was a left-handed batsman who played for New South Wales from 1968 until retirement in 1978. He scored over 5,700 runs as a stocky opener with a practised cut shot,though he was not able to prove his abilities at best at international level. He played in fourteen Test matches and six One Day Internationals from 1975 to 1977. On the back of his several good Sheffield Shield seasons he was selected for Australian tours of England and New Zealand. He scored a single Test century against the touring West Indian side in 1975–76. The cricket writer Peter Hanlon described Turner as "an ordinary man in the company of Gods."
Alan George Hurst is a former Australian cricketer who played in twelve Test matches and eight One Day Internationals between 1975 and 1979.
Gary John Cosier is a former Australian international cricketer who played in 18 Test matches and nine One Day Internationals between 1975 and 1979. Cosier's star shone very briefly following a sensational debut,when he became only the ninth Australian to post a century in his first Test.
James Donald Higgs is a former Australian leg spinner who played in 22 Test matches between 1978 and 1981. In the words of Gideon Haigh "Jim Higgs was Australia's best legspinner between Richie Benaud and Warne. His misfortune was to play at a time when wrist-spin was nearly extinct,thought to be the preserve only of the eccentric and the profligate,and so to find selectors and captains with little empathy with his guiles."
John Norman Maguire is a former Australian cricketer who played in three Test matches and 23 One Day Internationals in 1983 and 1984.
Robert Byers Kerr is an Australian former cricketer who played in two Test matches and four One Day Internationals in 1985. He represented Queensland in four Sheffield Shield finals.
Glenn Samuel Trimble is a former cricketer who represented Australia and Queensland. A batsman who preferred to play straight,and a part-time medium pace bowler,Trimble was a regular member of the Queensland side in the mid-1980s,and won an Esso Scholarship in 1986,playing with the Essex County Cricket Club Second XI in England.
Kenneth Hervey MacLeay is a former English-born Australian cricketer.
Wayne Maxwell Clark is a former Australian cricketer who played in 10 Test matches and two One Day Internationals between 1977 and 1979.