Published: Oct 19, 2016, 05:14 PM (IST)
Edited: Oct 19, 2016, 05:14 PM (IST)
Londres: Former New Zealand and India coach John Wright is to return to Derbyshire as a specialist coach when the county takes part in the 2017 edition of English cricket’s Twenty20 Blast competition, it was announced Wednesday. Left-handed opening batsman Wright played for Midlands club Derbyshire in the late 1970s and 1980s while also representing New Zealand, for whom he made 82 Test appearances. After his playing days were over, the 62-year-old Wright went on to coach India, New Zealand and, more recently, the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 tournament. John Wright speaks about New Zealand’s memorable Test win over India in 1988
“We could not have secured anybody with higher pedigree than John to fill this new role,” said Derbyshire director of cricket Kim Barnett, a former county team-mate of Wright. “He has won the IPL with the Mumbai Indians, been an international coach and was a great player at Derbyshire. I could not be more pleased to get him back on board here and work with him. He is a fantastic strategist and will give us a lot of expertise technically and tactically.”
The first ever Test that New Zealand played in India was back in the 1955-56 tour. Since they have managed to win only on two occasions. The first being the 1969-70 visit inspired by Hedley Howarth‘s nine wickets, which the visitors subsequently won by 167 runs in Nagpur. The second and the last (till date) came under the captainship of John Wright at the Wankhede Stadium in November 1988 which is remarkably also New Zealand’s most memorable victories in Asia. John Bracewell scored 52, 32 and took 6/51 and was adjudged the Man of the Match as New Zealand defeated India by 136 runs in the second Test of the series.
Talking about the same, John Wright who was the captain during the famous win, recently recalled all the happenings during that tour of India. Speaking to Times of India, Wright was quoted saying, “We had a tough first Test. We played on a wicket that turned a bit, lost the toss and fielded and a lot of us got ill on the rest day, which was Sunday. That was when two of our commentators had to field! Then we went to Goa and played another first-class game. That was the beauty of those times – we had three first-class matches and a Test going into the second Test in Bombay. We weren’t fancied, I don’t think anyone really gave us a chance after Bangalore.”
