By Richard Rae
SITTING in the Barbados sun, Chris Wright has his injury problems of 2013 firmly in perspective.
In fact, the Warwickshire seamer reckons, spending the winter focusing purely on fitness and technique instead of actually playing may in the long term serve to prolong his career.
“It was obviously a blow at the time but worse things have happened,” says the 28-year-old of the stress fracture in his back that ended his season in mid-July, leaving him facing six months rehabilitation.
“There’s part of me feels sometimes things happen for a reason. I feel stronger and fitter and more ready to bowl a lot of overs than I’ve done for a long time.”
At the same time, however, Wright confirms that Warwickshire have reassessed the workloads required of their bowlers.
Having won the 2012 Championship when Wright took 67 wickets and Keith Barker 56 in the 15 first-class matches each played, last year the county lost both to injury for long periods.
While Barker still picked up 46 victims in the 11 matches he was able to play, Wright took just 19 wickets in eight.
“It wasn’t just injuries that derailed us, a few things didn’t go our way, but clearly having myself and ‘Barks’ missing chunks of the season didn’t help.
“It’s not so much overs bowled as how they’re spread out that’s key, because the analysis has shown spikes in the bowlers’ workloads, and that’s when you’re most likely to get injured.
“It’s pretty much the only injury I’ve ever had but it was a bad one and it looks as though I may have got it by going from too little work prior to the t20 period to too much in the effort to prepare.
“Especially when it comes to training, little and often is the key. It’s better for the body to do that than, say, not bowl for four days and then have a long net. Ideally you’d approach matches the same way.”
Wright completed much of his rehabilitation programme under Graeme Welch, before the Warwickshire bowling coach accepted the job of elite performance director at Derbyshire.
Given ‘Pop’ Welch was also instrumental in his being offered the opportunity to rebuild his career after being released by Essex in 2011, Wright admits he was sorry to see him leave.
“I’ll miss him, but it’s part of sport that people who are very good at their jobs get offered bigger opportunities. At the same time it’s always good to get a fresh perspective, and I think all the bowlers are looking forward to working with ‘Richo’ [new bowling coach Alan Richardson].”
Ill-fortune with injuries or not, Wright says there is a definite sense in the Warwickshire camp that 2013 was a season of under-achievement, and a determination not to feel the same way at the end of 2014.
“If we’re anything like close to full-strength we should be challenging for the Championship, and I also see us doing well in one or more of the one-day competitions.
“We have as strong a bowling attack as any side, and it looks like we’ll have Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott available to strengthen the batting in the early part of the season, which will be a huge boost. Momentum is huge and if get off to a strong start, as we intend, I can definitely see us regaining the title.”
Which would, Wright hopes, enable him to resume his progress towards international recognition. Three weeks in South Africa on an England Performance Programme training camp in February confirmed him still to be very much in the selectors’ collective mind, and if he can find his 2012 form an early Lions call-up should be on the cards.
“That would be great, but I’ve been around long enough to know I’ve a lot to do first,” Wright said.
“At 28 you can’t be classified as promising and worth looking at on that basis, you have to be actually doing it, getting good batsmen out consistently.
“I’m confident I have that ability and after the last few months, I’m also pretty confident I have the strength and fitness to deliver.”
