The Surfer

Wright returns with message to toughen up

As New Zealand look to toughen up their cricket outlook, there's no better man than John Wright to show them the way, who has joined New Zealand Cricket in a high-performance role

As New Zealand look to toughen up their cricket outlook, there's no better man than John Wright to show them the way, who has joined New Zealand Cricket in a high-performance role. His role is vague for now, but John Bracewell, the coach, and Justin Vaughan, the New Zealand board's chief executive, have their ideas of how best to use Wright's abilities. David Leggat, writing for the New Zealand Herald, illustrates with an example during a tour of India in the 1980s.
Once, the ball rolled a metre away from his bat. Convention is that the batsman lobs the ball back to the bowler. But Wright stood his ground as the youngster marched all the way down the pitch to pick up his ball. Watching this, Wright's teammates chuckled.

Kanishkaa Balachandran is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo