Luke Wright: who wants to be a T20 millionaire?
This interview originally appeared in the September 2008 issue of SPIN. Subscribe to Spin magazine for 10 issues and get a free Cricketers Who’s Who 2009 worth £18.99.
Luke Wright is in the right place at the right time: a player built for Twenty20 who has moved into the England team just as the game’s shortest form takes over the world. He bowls 85mph, swinging deliveries and is especially effective bowling at the death; he hits the ball out of the ground effortlessly; he dives around the field like Jonty Rhodes. He’s young, dynamic, blond, spiky-haired and highly marketable: in short, he’s everything that Twenty20 cricket is about right now. Wright, discarded by Leicestershire as a teenager, seems sure to be one of the cricketers most likely to profit in a big way from the revolution. The 23-year-old alerted the England selectors last year with a 45-ball century in the Twenty20 Cup and also celebrated his England call-up with a 73-ball 125 against Gloucestershire in the Pro40. He biffed a superb 38-ball half-century on ODI debut, against India at the Oval last year, and has since been promoted up the order to take on the vital role of pinch-hitter in both ODIs and T20s.
He goes into the series with South Africa with a batting strike-rate of 95.89 from 10 ODIs and 127.27 from eight Twenty20 internationals. He tells SPIN of his love for Twenty20 and also how he rejected a lucrative offer to play in the IPL – despite a personal invitation from Sachin Tendulkar.
You’ve gone from being a Sussex squad player to an England T20 regular over the last 12 months. How does that feel?
It’s been pretty unbelievable, really. In the domestic Twenty20 last year I was just hoping to secure my place as an opener when Matty Prior was in the England team. From there everything just seemed to go so well and I managed to play well on TV a few times. Then, when Rav [Bopara] got injured I got my opportunity.
In fact I remember saying to my Dad after Rav’s injury, ‘I just might get a chance here, mate’. My Dad said, ‘Don’t be silly son, you’ve got some work to do yet’. Then when I got my chance the whole experience was fantastic and I’m still loving every minute of it. I just want it to continue for as long as possible.
Is the T20 format especially exciting to you?
I love everything about it: the batting, the bowling and I love diving around in the field as well. I love how quick it is and how intense it is. The people in the crowd really get into it and it inspires you as players when you see how much the fans get into it. You see the families there, the kids and just seeing the smiles and enjoyment on their faces does make it a very satisfying experience, to know that you are playing some part in entertaining them and sending them home feeling happy and that they have received their money’s worth.
I love the way the players are encouraged to be innovative in Twenty20, and I’m sure we will see more reverse sweeps, switch-hitting, yorkers, slow bouncers: anything to get an advantage.
So is four-day cricket effectively off the radar for a player like you?
Not at all, I love four-day cricket as well but it is the Twenty20 that is bringing in the finances for the counties and the players. But ask any young cricketer what their dream is and I would still like to think that it is about playing Test cricket for England. That is what people remember more than anything and that is the format that has the greatest history. So four-day cricket is the best way to develop your game for that arena.
I suppose Twenty20 and one-day internationals are my own favourite forms but I am working very hard at improving in first-class cricket. But ultimately, yes, I do love the fast tempo of the shorter formats.
Is T20 and all the associated rewards the talk of the dressing-room at the moment?
Yes, I would say it is. Everyone at county level this season was desperate to do well because it was a chance to go to the Stanford event in Antigua and there was also the lure of the Champions League and obviously possible IPL deals or ICL deals. As I found out myself, everyone knows it is a chance to put yourself on the map. Just look at what happened to Graham Napier this year. It can be a massive stepping stone in your career. Everyone’s watching Twenty20: the selectors, the spectators, media all over the world – and obviously the IPL teams, as Napes discovered when he apparently had offers to go to India.
But you rejected the chance to go to the
IPL yourself earlier this year. What happened there?
I got offered the chance to go out there for three or four weeks early in our season and was then offered another chance to go out for the semi-final stage. Ravi Bopara was in the same boat. We didn’t discuss our offers together at the time: we both wanted to focus on trying to get into the England team instead and that meant we needed to get our heads down for our counties. Remember, this season we didn’t quite know how the ECB were going to react to anybody going out to play IPL, so me and Ravi both took the safe option and stayed in England.
Can you tell us who the IPL offers were from?
There were two or three teams that came in for me. It’s funny because one of the offers came when I was on my way to Southampton to play for England Lions. This call came when I was in the car and it was Sachin Tendulkar. I was sure that it must have been one of the Sussex lads having a laugh. But it really was Sachin.
We spoke for about five or ten minutes. He asked me how I felt about going out there to play some IPL and the basic message I told him was that I would love to play out there another time but that I was concentrating on trying to get into the England team. Chennai and another team also contacted my agent.
I wouldn’t change the decision I made for anything: England is my main concern. It sounds as though it’s going to be different next year, though: the ECB have said as long as it doesn’t interfere with England commitments they won’t mind if we spend some time there so let’s see what happens.
Do you think you impressed Tendulkar with your 50 on debut against India last year?
I hope so but I don’t know exactly. Obviously, I did okay at that time so for someone of his stature and someone who is so widely respected around the world to be ringing me was a huge honour. It was actually a surreal moment; I thought it wasn’t actually happening, but it did and it was a massive boost for me. I was on a high for quite some time after that.
This year in the Twenty20 Cup we have seen how a few journeymen or other people who might not have been recognised all that much be catapulted to stardom…
Absolutely. The biggest example would be Graham Napier. He has gone from being seen as an average county cricketer to the star of the competition and someone who is apparently attracting IPL offers. We have a young guy at Sussex called Rory Hamilton-Brown and I believe he could do the same thing as he has a lot of ability. It only takes one big performance now and you are a star across the world with so many people watching on TV and with so many media people following Twenty20.
Have you thought much about the prospect of playing in the Stanford games and becoming an instant millionaire?
It’s great that people are talking about these kinds of events and it is obviously going to be a huge occasion. I know it sounds clichéd but I really am not thinking about buying a big house or anything like that at this time as my main focus is on doing well against South Africa.
If I do well in the T20 game and the ODI series against South Africa then I should have a great chance of being there in Antigua but I can’t allow myself to get distracted by the glamour and hype before I have actually put myself on the plane.
Have we reached the time now where players are starting to think less about Test cricket and are more focused on making their name and money from Twenty20?
I think definitely people are thinking
like that, especially those who maybe don’t think they have much of a chance of it in Test cricket. For me, Test cricket is the ultimate goal but I wouldn’t be surprised
if we saw a lot of new names come through in Twenty20: people who think that is
their strength.
Are you looking forward to the Twenty20 World Cup in England next year?
Yes, because we didn’t perform that well in South Africa last year. We definitely underachieved given the players we had there, so I am positive the lads will be
very determined to put on a better show
in our own country, where I’m sure it will be fantastic spectacle. We showed in New Zealand this year that we are improving in that format and that we can beat good teams, so it’s up to us to kick on. Again, players might be seeing this event as
the perfect platform with huge audiences to say, “I can go and play in the IPL, or
ICL”. It is a great chance to impress and earn a contract.
You have the same management company as Andrew Flintoff. Do you spend much time together?
Fred has been brilliant with me actually, and I spoke to him a lot while he was doing his rehab and when he was at Lancashire. He will always help me out if I need him or need some advice. He is always there for me and I am very thankful to have a someone like him to support me if I need it.
What is it like to be compared with Freddie?
It’s always nice to be compared to people like that but I won’t be allowing myself to get carried away by those kinds of comparisons: he is a world beater and I have to work hard and perform at the highest level to get anywhere near to what he has achieved.
What’s the best advice Freddie has given you so far?
He tells me to give myself a chance when I’m batting and to be aggressive when I am bowling. The best advice I have taken on board is to keep my head when I am batting. He reminded me that I don’t have to hit every ball out of the park from the start and that I should have a look and get myself in first because I hit the ball well enough to catch up later in my innings. I thought it was good advice and I would admit that I did try to be too aggressive too early at times last year. It’s all about getting the balance right.
What’s the toughest time you have had since playing for England?
Every time I have gone out to bat or bowl it has always been tough. But I have enjoyed learning to open the batting at England level. Game by game I am learning something new but it is still enjoyable even though it has been hard cricket. I have bowled overs at the death and those experiences have been good for me getting used to pressure situations. The more you are exposed to that environment the more confident you become at that level against the top players.
People said that Twenty20 was easier on the body for players than, say, Test cricket because it is shorter. But with the volume of Twenty20 growing and the matches so intense, will players suffer physically?
Maybe. It’s hard for me to say. I can only talk from personal experience and if I go back to the matches we played in New Zealand this year, me and Broady [Stuart Broad] were buzzing into the early hours, high on the adrenaline of the games.
I would go to his room and stay there until two or three in the morning and we would just talk about the match or the atmosphere and the tension of what we had gone through. But it would all be from enjoyment rather than worrying about the strain on the body. Twenty20 is fast and furious, it is intense, but it is as much fun to play as it is to watch.
This interview originally appeared in the September 2008 issue of SPIN. Subscribe to Spin magazine for 10 issues and get a free Cricketers Who’s Who 2009 worth £18.99.
