by Abhishek Mukherjee
Doug Wright was born on 21 Aug 1914. He remains the only bowler to do the hat-trick seven times in First-Class cricket.

His admirers included Don Bradman and Wally Hammond, who had faced him in Test cricket and domestic cricket respectively.

Keith Miller thought he was the greatest leg-spinner since Bill O’Reilly.

On his day Wright could run through any side. His faster delivery was quick enough to flummox even Godfrey Evans. They simply could not play him.

Unfortunately, these were punctuated by the ordinary outings, during the course of which he could be dreadful. An unplayable ball would be followed by a chain of long hops and full tosses.

Explains his Test bowling average of 39.11.

He took 23 wickets on the extremely difficult 1946-47 Ashes tour – the most on either side. Lindwall and McCool, the next names on the list, took 18 wickets apiece.

This, despite Australia winning the series 3-0.

Unfortunately, the wickets cost Wright 43.04 apiece.

Colin Cowdrey perhaps summed it up best: “He never ever bowled a ball defensively. Every ball was bowled to take a wicket.”

Cowdrey recommended “he never wanted to bowl a dot ball” be written on Wright’s epitaph.

PS

Wright was the first bowler in history to dismiss the three Ws in the same Test innings. Trevor Bailey is the only other bowler to do this.