Famous Cricketers No 38 - D.V.P.Wright

Settling back into County Cricket did not prove easy as Kent were very much in the process of rebuilding the XI after the recent retirement of several key players. Frequently the success of the side quite simply depended on how well Doug bowled. Despite his best endeavours, such pressure was clearly unreasonable and the club plummeted to new depths with much criticism being levied at the Captain, Bill Murray-Wood. Accordingly, the County Committee dismissed him in August 1953 and appointed Doug (as the senior professional) to the position. Whilst being honoured to accept (no Kent professional had ever before been appointed to the post), the responsibility was to weigh heavily on his shoulders. As a quietly spoken man, Doug was rarely able to deliver rousing dressing room speeches that might have served to lift the spirit of his side and spur them on to greater things. Similarly, being of a very sensitive and caring nature, he found it difficult to criticise any of his colleagues for a misdemeanour or to omit someone from the side if their form had escaped them for he shared their disappointment. Doug’s approach to the job, therefore, was to offer a few kind words of encouragement where necessary and to lead the side by example, hoping that his personal effort and commitment would serve to inspire others. One needs only to look at his performances to see what an excellent example he set but, truth be told, a number of the other players were simply not good enough to follow this lead and the County experienced continued lean times. At the end of the 1956 season, Doug resigned the captaincy (which was subsequently awarded to Colin Cowdrey) and returned to the ordinary ranks. This gave him more time to devote to the demands of his second benefit year and to rekindle interest in his sports goods business in Ashford which had been suffering from neglect. A series of niggling injuries during 1957 persuaded Doug to retire from first-class cricket at the end of the season. After a year away from the game, he was appointed as coach to Charterhouse School in 1959 and, within a couple of summers, the school was able to boast one of the strongest XI’s in the country. It was with some regret that Doug left the school after twelve summers in order to devote more time to his family though he was not lost totally to the game for he spent several years coaching part-time at King’s School, Canterbury and at the University of Kent at Canterbury. So how good a bowler was Doug Wright? His critics would point to his relatively unremarkable career record, particularly in the Test Matches where his wickets proved so expensive. They would also argue that his eccentric bowling action - a seventeen yard approach, comprising a series of steps and bounds followed by a swooping of the arms prior to reaching the crease then a full circle rotation of an outstretched right arm - meant that he was prone to lose his rhythm. On such occasions, no-balls were so plentiful that his confidence was impaired and his length suffered accordingly. Nobody - and that included Doug - could foresee when this might happen which proved a major concern for the fielding captain defending a small score. On the other hand, Doug’s supporters argued that his Test record had to be judged against the strength of the opposition (particularly the Australians) in the early post-war years when few bowlers prospered. Many of the leading batsmen of the time feared Doug more than any other bowler, indeed, none other than Sir Donald Bradman said that : “There was one [bowler] who caused me more problems than anyone else - Douglas Wright of Kent….I scored a lot of runs against him, yet I could never settle down comfortably. However well set I was and on the best batting wickets, I knew he was capable of producing the unplayable ball - and no other bowler had quite the same power.” It would also be argued that Doug was one of the unluckiest of bowlers ever to have played the game. On countless occasions he found that perfect delivery to which Bradman referred only to see it either bounce over the stumps or turn so sharply that few batsmen in the world were able to lay bat to ball. When he was able to find the edge, Doug was rarely well served by his close fielders who fumbled many chances as the ball arrived with more pace (and certainly with more spin) than expected. To rub 5