Thought Sachin’s call to ask me to play for Mumbai was a prank, reveals Luke Wright

A utility cricketer who packed a punch with the bat and was capable of sliding in many a useful over with the ball, Luke Wright, after making inroads in domestic cricket, burst onto the international scene in 2007 and scored an impressive fifty against India on ODI debut. And despite not really taking international cricket by the scruff of its neck, the all-rounder, remained a giant in the domestic scene and his uncanny match-winning ability saw him being sought-after by T20 franchises across the world. 

However, the 35-year-old then went on to reveal that after talking about the same to the ECB, the board denied both him and Ravi Bopara permission to play in the IPL and stated that such a move would mark the end of their England careers. The ECB, during the late 2000s and the early 2010s, had a strict policy against allowing its players to partake in the IPL, except for the exception of Kevin Pietersen.

Eventually, though, Wright did end up playing in the IPL, after being snapped up by Pune Warriors in 2012,  and reflecting on the experience, the all-rounder revealed how the whole couple of months was a big learning experience for him, with him spending ample time picking the brains of the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Aaron Finch and Ross Taylor. Wright stated that he got better as a player with age due to the experiences he got and admitted that he would have wished to have gotten such exposure even before he played international cricket for England.

“When I went to Pune, you got Yuvraj , Finch, Angelo Mathews, Taylor, you can reel off all these names, and you just stood there in the nets, learning how they go about it, asking questions, they’re giving you tips, and that was just huge for me as a learning curve, and you’re then playing in different conditions. In terms of learning, it’s the best. It’s under pressure, you’re there as an overseas player, people expect you to perform, but you are learning,” Wright said.