Wright's know-how is key to Sussex success

Think of Luke Wright. What pops into your head? For me, it is a carefree guy - one who, as a globetrotting gun for hire, not to mention as an international, has few enemies in the game, the broadest of grins and a mighty bottom-handed bunt. Straightforward bloke, straightforward cricketer, straight hitter.

These days, though, that impression rather damns Wright with faint praise. Nice guy, sure, but Wright is no pushover: when he talks T20 cricket, you sit up and listen.

He is the tenth-highest run scorer in the format's history, only Chris Gayle and Brendon McCullum have more than his five centuries, and he has played in just about every league in the world.

Kevin Pietersen is widely heralded as England's greatest, and most knowledgeable T20 export, a trendsetter and trailblazer, but Wright has played close to 100 more games in the format than Pietersen. Uncomplicated cricketer, maybe, but he is a man in tune with the volatile nature of the modern cricketing landscape.

This summer, Sussex have been the beneficiaries of the wisdom he has acquired on those travels. In his first season as captain of the county's T20 side, he seems to have taken on responsibility for every facet of the game: he has led the club's overseas recruitment, steered the ship tactically, and led from the front with the bat, biffing his customary bucketload of runs. Opening with his old mate Chris Nash, he has 564 in 13 innings, at a strike rate of 173.53.

This Wednesday, he has a home NatWest T20 Blast quarter-final against Northamptonshire to show for his and his team's efforts.

"There have been winters when I've played in four different T20 leagues," Wright says, "and all that time rubbing shoulders with world class players and picking the brains of top captains has helped me since taking over this year. One guy who has helped me is Brad Hodge, who I played with at the Stars - he's got a great brain and I speak to him a lot.

"We've had plans that have worked well but I believe with T20 it's important not to be too prescriptive. As a result one of our main traits as a team is just backing ourselves, especially the batters. They need to know that it's acceptable to get caught on the rope and if it's in their area they can take risks. We'd rather be all out for 90 having a go than get a safe score that's never enough."

A team very much in Wright's image, then, and these ideas extent to his star bowler too. Tymal Mills, with his chronic back problems and tendency to be erratic, can't be the easiest man to captain. But something is going right; so far Mills has picked up 18 wickets at an economy under eight.

"We've very much given Tymal a free role," Wright says. "We've told him to look at Shaun Tait. The ball flies off but he gets wickets. At the death or at the top, he knows his role: come in, bowl fast, bowl bumpers, slower balls. Even if Tymal's gone for 40, the trade-off are the two wickets, and they're often big ones, their best players. He has a habit of getting top players out."

Wright spent his off-season formulating such plans, and using his vast book of contacts to finalise Sussex's squad. He came back with two gems - Mahela Jayawardene and George Bailey - but in doing so, also firmed up a long-held sense of the English game's shortcomings.

"They've been great signings. Mahela was amazing for fields because he has captained so many great spinners, and the way he spoke to our spinners was awesome. George brought that relaxed side and that massive grin.

"But recruiting them reminded me of how tough not playing T20 in a block is. With the overseas guys playing once a week you're not getting the best out of them, because what are they doing for the rest of the week? I remember ringing George and him asking, 'well how long is the tournament, is it five weeks?' And I reply, 'well, we need you for three months…' You're straight away finding it difficult to find guys to play much cricket. There might be games here and there - as we saw with Gayle and McCullum. We need those guys for longer.

"The crowd might not always notice but the standard of cricket can't be as good when it's not in a block. It can't be as intense. You're asking guys, especially bowlers, to execute utterly different skills from one day to the next without any practice. Nailing length one day, yorkers next and that's very tricky.

"It doesn't work for me and if you ask almost every player in the country they'd agree. I understand how hard the scheduling is, but if we do go to the block I hope the finals and quarters remain in the block too. I remember when we got to Finals Day in 2012. We'd played brilliantly, then had a long break and lost all rhythm."

When Luke Wright talks T20, you sit up and listen.