Luke James Wright (born 7 March 1985) is an English former

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er. He was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium bowler. Wright joined

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

in 2004, having started his career at

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

. He was named in England's squad for the Under-19 World Cup in 2004, and joined the International

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

squad for the 2007 Twenty20 World Championship in September 2007. He made his

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

debut on 5 September 2007 against

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. In November 2022, he became a selector for the England men's team, announcing his retirement from playing at the same time. Wright was a member of the England team that won the

2010 ICC World Twenty20 The 2010 ICC World Twenty20 was the third edition of the Men's T20 World Cup, formerly known as the ICC World Twenty20, an international Twenty20 cricket tournament that was held in the West Indies between 30 April and 16 May 2010. It was wo ...

County career

Wright hit a century on debut for Sussex, and has won the

Denis Compton Denis Charles Scott Compton (23 May 1918 – 23 April 1997) was an English multi-sportsman. As a cricketer he played in 78 Test matches and spent his whole career with Middlesex. As a footballer, he played as a winger and spent most of his ca ...

medal on three separate occasions during his domestic career.Luke Wright
at ESPNcricinfo retrieved 3 September 2007 On 26 June 2007 he smashed his maiden domestic Twenty20 Cup century, scoring 103 from only 45 balls, including 11 fours and six sixes before being bowled by Yasir Arafat in Sussex's 7 wicket win over

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

. Although Sussex were defeated in the semi-finals, Wright ended up as the highest run scorer of the competition.Luke Wright
at the ECB retrieved 3 September 2007 Wright had success in the longer one day formats, hitting 125 against

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

from 73 deliveries. In April 2008, Wright played for the

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

(MCC) at the opening match of the 2008 county season. Making 15 in the first innings while Sussex were bowled out for 171, he hit a quickfire 155* from 185 deliveries, with 21 fours and three sixes, during a rain-interrupted second innings. In May 2008 he was selected for the England Lions team to face the touring New Zealand side at the beginning of the latter's tour of England. With the Lions struggling, Wright hit 120 off 131 deliveries to bring them to 280 all out, giving rise to speculation about his place in the national team.

England career

Wright represented

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

at Under-17 level. In 2003 he travelled to Australia with the Under-19 team and took a hat-trick against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, finishing with match figures of 5/46. In February 2006 he toured the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

to bolster the England A team. In July 2007, he was selected in the preliminary 30-man England Squad for the 2007 Twenty20 World Championship in September, having been the top domestic Twenty20 scorer with 346 runs that season, and on 6 August he was named in the final 15-man squad. On 3 September it was announced that he would also join the England ODI squad as a replacement for the injured Ravi Bopara and

Andrew Flintoff Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff (born 6 December 1977), is an English television and radio presenter and former international cricketer. Flintoff played all forms of the game and was one of the sport's leading all-rounders, a fast bowler, middle-ord ...

for the final two matches against

.''England call up Wright as cover''

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retrieved 3 September 2007 On 5 September 2007 Wright made his One Day International debut against India at

The Oval The Oval, currently named for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club sinc ...

, London; hitting a half century in a 106 run 6th wicket stand with

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

batsmen Owais Shah. Wright was run out on 50, by a matter of inches after facing just 39 balls, and received a standing ovation. In his second match at Lords he was out for a second ball duck. He also took a good low catch to remove Gautam Gambhir. Wright was selected for the 2007 Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa, and played his first match on 13 September against

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

, where he was out caught behind on this first ball. He then suffered a number of ducks and single figure scores during the tournament, batting at both number 3 and down in the lower order. Wright was selected for the 2008 Tour to New Zealand, and after impressing with both bat and ball in the two practice matches, he was selected to play in three of the five matches. In the ODI series, which England went on to lose, Wright hit 71 runs at 35.5 and sent down five overs at the cost of 28 runs. These overs included the final over of a tied-ODI, where New Zealand needed seven to win and only managed six from Wright's bowling. After this, he continued to be a regular member of England's Twenty20 and ODI squads, playing in home series against New Zealand and South Africa in 2008, although he was never assured of a place in the starting XI and his place in the batting order was uncertain. In the autumn of 2009, he played against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, in a 6–1 loss, and in a surprisingly successful run at the ICC Champions Trophy, which was held in South Africa, where England beat the hosts and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

before being thrashed by 9 wickets against Australia in the semi-finals (in which Wright scored 49, putting on a century partnership with Tim Bresnan). In that match he and Bresnan set the highest 7th wicket partnership in ICC Champions Trophy history (107) Following the Champions Trophy, in October 2009 Wright was called up to England's

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

squad for the first time for the winter tour of South Africa. His inclusion was to fill the all-rounder's spot vacated by

's retirement after the 2009 Ashes. Geoff Miller, England's chairman of selectors, said "The retirement of Andrew Flintoff has created a vacancy for an all-rounder in the squad and while we do not see Luke Wright as a like for like replacement for Andrew, we are excited by the way in which his all-round game continues to develop and believe he can make an impact at Test level". However he did not play and his career ended without playing test cricket. Wright was very much a regular of the England one day side, however, and was a member of the England Twenty20 squads for both the

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

and

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

tournaments where he was a member of the winning England team.

Personal life

Wright attended Ratcliffe College in Ratcliffe on the Wreake,

and made his first-class debut for

at age 18. Wright met his wife Rebecca whilst on tour in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

in 2009. They got engaged whilst he was on a South African tour on Christmas Eve 2010 and married on 30 September 2011. At 3:30pm on 27 November 2011, Luke's first child was born, Joshua James, Luke soon posted a picture of him on his Twitter page. He is a supporter of

Newcastle United F.C. Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Since the formation of the club in 1881 ...

T20 franchise career

In the 2011/2012 Australian season, Wright joined the

Melbourne Stars Melbourne Stars are an Australian Twenty20 franchise cricket team, based in Melbourne, Victoria that competes in Australia's Twenty20 competition, the Big Bash League. The Stars wear a green uniform and play their home matches at the Melbou ...

in the inaugural

Big Bash League The Big Bash League (BBL), also known as the KFC Big Bash League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in Australia. Established in 2011 by Cricket Australia, the Big Bash League replaced the previous competitio ...

. On 9 January, Wright smashed 117 from 60 deliveries including nine sixes and eight fours against the Hobart Hurricanes at Blundstone Arena. This was the highest score in Australian domestic Twenty20 up until D’Arcy Short's 122* in BBL 07. In the same match, Wright and teammate Rob Quiney set up a 172-run opening stand which is the highest for any wicket in a domestic Twenty20 match. In the inaugural season of the

Pakistan Super League The Pakistan Super League (PSL), also known as HBL PSL for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in Pakistan, organised by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Founded by the PCB in 2015, the league features six city-bas ...

in February 2016, Luke Wright played for Quetta Gladiators. He was retained for the 2nd season which started from 9 February 2017. In September 2018, he was named in Paktia's squad in the

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition is all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a book pr ...

of the Afghanistan Premier League tournament. In July 2019, he was selected to play for the Belfast Titans in the inaugural edition of the

Euro T20 Slam The euro (symbol: €; currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the euro area or, more commonly, the eurozone. The euro is divided into 100 ...

cricket tournament. However, the following month the tournament was cancelled. In April 2022, he was bought by the Northern Superchargers for the 2022 season of The Hundred. He announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in November 2022.

England selector

In November 2022, Wright became a selector for the England men's team.

References

External links

Luke Wright
at the

England and Wales Cricket Board The England and Wales Cricket Board, aka ECB, is the Sports governing body, national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on 1 January 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Luke 1985 births Living people People from Bottesford, Leicestershire People educated at Ratcliffe College English cricketers England One Day International cricketers England Twenty20 International cricketers Cricketers at the 2007 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup Leicestershire Cricket Board cricketers Leicestershire cricketers Sussex cricketers Sussex cricket captains Wellington cricketers Melbourne Stars cricketers Pune Warriors India cricketers Dhaka Dominators cricketers Abahani Limited cricketers Auckland cricketers Quetta Gladiators cricketers Rajshahi Royals cricketers Cricketers from Leicestershire English expatriate sportspeople in New Zealand English expatriate sportspeople in South Africa English expatriate cricketers in Australia English expatriate cricketers in Bangladesh Expatriate cricketers in New Zealand English expatriate cricketers in India English expatriate cricketers in Pakistan