Wright Has the Edge

Cantabrian and Black Caps coach John Wright “is the coach best placed to lift the Australian team” and has “an affable manner that conceals toughness and a fund of cricketing sense”, according to The Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Roebuck. Wright — who is contracted until the end of the West Indies tour in July next year — has coached New Zealand and India with considerable success, Roebuck writes. “[He] handled India well and they rose steadily on his watch. Like most openers worth their salt, Wright adjusts his game to meet varying conditions. Better than most he understands that fashions and fads change, that cricket is a game of skill that favours those able to keep the ball on the ground and on the spot. That Wright is a foreigner, and a New Zealander at that, is of little consequence besides getting the right man for the job. It’s just that the Kiwi has the edge.” Wright is also a former international cricketer representing — and captaining — New Zealand, and, following his retirement in 1993 coaching the Indian national cricket team from 2000 to 2005.