Damien Wright
Randwick Petersham Cricket Club | February 10, 2025
A first-class cricket all-rounder, who learnt his early cricket with Petersham-Marrickville, Damien Wright had the distinction of playing a major role in the winning of a Sheffield Shield competition. And while he was born and bred in NSW, his performance was not for his home State but for Tasmania. It was the 2006-07 season, with Tasmania playing NSW at Hobart. After top-scoring with 67 in the first innings, he demolished the NSW middle order in the second, taking a brilliant 5-13 to give Tasmania its first win in the competition. The irony was that his presence in the Tasmanian side was the result of being previously overlooked by NSW, after a splendid 1996-97 season for Petersham-Marrickville. That snub saw the young pace bowler in the Tasmanian line-up the following season.
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A right-arm pace bowler and hard-hitting batter, Damien Geoffrey Wright was born in Casino, NSW, on 25 July 1975. The son of Geoff Wright, one of Petersham-Marrickville’s best players in the late 1970s-early ‘80s and a NSW State Colt, Damien was destined for high honours in cricket. He showed early promise and in 1992-93 at age 17, pulled on a Petersham-Marrickville cap for the first time in the 4th Grade team. His initiation was enough to coax his dad out of an 11 year retirement to return to the club as captain of the side. His impact was immediate, scoring 366 runs including a score of 103 while taking 22 wickets at 17.1, with 5-34 his best figures.
The following 1993-94 season, Wright played 2nd Grade scoring 98 runs while taking 15 wickets with a best performance of 4-39. And although his performance did not reap the rewards anticipated, selectors were impressed enough to bring him into 1st Grade for three matches and two Limited Overs competition games. He debuted against Penrith at Howell Oval, coming up against Trevor Bayliss who was in outstanding form for the Panthers, hitting 206*. Damien bowled 11 overs for 0-49 and made 12 with the bat. Three matches later, he took his first wicket against St George at Hurstville, finishing with 1-40. Another five matches followed in 1994-95, after he took 5-64 against Hawkesbury and 4-43 playing Balmain in 2nds.
In 1995-96, Wright again played a mixture of 1st and 2nd grade matches. And while his 13 wickets in 1sts included some good spells, it was in 2nd Grade where he performed the highlight of the season when he took four wickets in four balls against Randwick at Coogee Oval. It was an historic moment for Petersham-Marrickville, being its first recorded “double hat-trick”. He also had an outstanding season in the under 21 Poidevin-Gray competition, taking 14 wickets at 7.7.
Season 1996-97 was the season Damien Wright the cricketer, came of age. He played the whole season in 1st Grade, taking the bowling honours with 48 wickets, averaging 15.6 each. Playing Parramatta at Old Kings, he bowled his team to an outright win taking 3-63 in the first innings and a magnificent 7-40 in the second, giving him 10 wickets in the match. He followed up a few rounds later, bowling out Sydney University for 87 with a 6-48 performance off 22 overs. He also finished second in the batting averages, scoring 312 runs at 24.0 with 54* against Mosman his best score. It was no surprise that he was awarded the club’s Martin Bedkober Memorial Trophy as the most outstanding player in the club, an award his father Geoff won in 1979-80.
Shortly after the end of that season, Damien announced that he was moving to Tasmania in an attempt to break into first-class cricket. It was a successful move, as later in October, he made his first-class debut for Tasmania against South Australia at Adelaide Oval. He scored 19 and took a wicket in each innings, to commence what turned out to be an impressive cricket career.
In 2008, after 11 seasons with Tasmania, during which time he toured South Africa with the Australia A team and played for the Prime Minister’s XI against New Zealand, he moved to Victoria. Over the following seasons he featured in Victoria’s two Sheffield Shield wins and in the 2009-10 success, was one of the country’s leading wicket-takers with 35 first-class wickets.
Damien retired in 2011 with a record of 406 wickets and 3,824 runs in 123 first-class matches. He also took 150 wickets and hit 1,125 runs in 132 Limited Overs and T20 matches. Apart from Tasmania and Victoria he played for four clubs in English County cricket. He also had the distinction of being named in Tasmania’s 2007 “Dream Team”, celebrating 30 years of Tasmanian cricket.
Shortly after retiring as a player, Wright took on the bowling coach role with the New Zealand Test team. That appointment paid early dividends with the Black Caps beating Australia in the Second Test in Hobart in December 2011. It was New Zealand’s first Test win on Australian soil for more than 20 years. Interestingly, while in his final season of first-class cricket with Victoria, Damien was a playing coach for the Victorian Bushrangers and as such was a major influence in the development of the fast bowling talents of Australian opening bowler, James Pattinson, who later took all before him on the international cricket stage. He also coached the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League.
In five seasons with Petersham-Marrickville, Damien Wright took 156 wickets and scored 1,048 runs across all competitions. In 1st Grade he took 67 wickets at 20.97 and hit 357 runs.
Lyall Gardner OAM
