Wright, Luke – Hit a century on his county debut

Luke Wright, (1985- )

LUKE James Wright is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium bowler.

Born in Grantham Hospital, he lived first at Redmile, then Bottesford.

He went to Redmile Primary School, before moving on to Belvoir High School and King Edward VII School, Melton Mowbray.

He joined Sussex in 2004, having started his career at Leicestershire cricket accademy.

Wright hit a century on debut for Sussex, and has won the Denis Compton medal on three separate occasions during his domestic career.

In 2007 he smashed his maiden domestic Twenty20 Cup century, scoring 103 from only 45 balls, including 11 fours and six sixes before being bowled by Yasir Arafat in Sussex’s 7 wicket win over Kent at Canterbury. Wright ended up as the highest run scorer of the competition.

In April 2008, He played for the MCC at the opening match of the 2008 county season. Making 15 in the first innings while Sussex were bowled out for 171, he hit a quickfire 155* from 185 deliveries.

In 2008 he was selected for the England Lions team to face the touring New Zealand side at He hit 120 off 131 deliveries to bring them to 280 all out, giving rise to speculation about his place in the national team.

Wright represented England at Under-17 level and in 2003 went to Australia with the Under-19s and in 2006 toured the West Indies with England A team.

In 2007, he was selected in the preliminary 30-man England Squad for the 2007 Twenty20 World Championship in September, having been the top domestic Twenty20 scorer with 346 runs that season.

He was selected for the 2007 Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa, and played his first match against Zimbabwe.

The following year he toured New Zealand, playing three of the five matches.. There he met Rebecca. They got engaged while he was on a South African tour and married in September 2011.

He continued to be a regular member of England’s Twenty20 and ODI squads, playing in home series against New Zealand and South Africa in 2008.

Wright was called up to England’s Test squad for the first time in 2009 for the winter tour of South Africa. His inclusion was to fill the all-rounder’s spot vacated by Andrew Flintoff’s retirement after the 2009 Ashes.

In the 2011/2012 Australian season Wright joined the Melbourne Stars in the inaugural Big Bash League. He smashed 117 from 60 deliveries including nine sixes and eight fours against the Hobart Hurricanes at Blundstone Arena.

This remains the highest score in Australian domestic Twenty20.

In the inaugural season of the Pakistan Super League in February 2016, Luke Wright played for Quetta Gladiators. He was retained for the 2nd season which started from 9 February 2017.

In September 2018, he was named in Paktia’s squad in the first edition of the Afghanistan Premier League tournament. In July 2019, he was selected to play for the Belfast Titans in the inaugural edition of the Euro T20 Slam cricket tournament.

Unfortunately,  the following month the tournament was cancelled.

In April 2022, he was bought by the Northern Superchargers for the 2022 season of The Hundred.

He announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in November 2022.

In November 2022, Wright became a selector for the England men’s team.