Luke Wright, just go away

I don't like having to bag Luke Wright every time he turns out for England. I'm sure he's a nice enough, harmless guy, and probably gets quite upset when he / if he reads blogs like this or sees that he's trending on Twitter due to a hate campaign attempting to force him out of international cricket. I don't like having to do it. I'm bored of it. You must be bored of it. But what I'm most bored and tired of is seeing Luke Wright being carried by this England team, and offering nothing towards the end product of the team.

Cricinfo's profile of Lukey says he's a "crucial cog" in England's team. Is he bollocks. If this England team was a car, Luke Wright would be a hubcap. It improves the look of the car, but serves no other purpose. And gets carried along while other parts of the car do much harder, difficult and important jobs. While everything looks nicer and cleaner with hubcaps, don't forget that a car can function just fine without them. Luke Wright sits for some reason at number six, and acts as an "all-rounder". He doesn't bowl, and is frighteningly too far up the order, where he is often exposed for just not being a good enough batsman. He's also a bit of a liability in the field. Put simply, he just isn't good enough to be playing for England.

In the past I've banged on about how it's a disgrace that Wright has played 70 times for England over the past 4 years. But I can see how he may have been given a few games as a promising all-rounder, and hoped that he'd develop into a big player for England. Well, it's four years down the line, and he hasn't done that. And when he plays, it's stopping the promising all-rounders of 2011 from playing. If he's meant to be playing as a sixth / backup bowler - there isn't any point, as Collingwood is more than capable of doing that role. And if he's seen as one of England's top six one day batsmen, then I'm sorry, but whoever's selecting him is seeing something I'm not.

I have nothing against Luke Wright as a person. I'd have nothing against his selection if England decided to open with him or use him in a more prominent role with the ball. If England were picking him to fulfil an actual job in the team, such as either a batsman, bowler or even as an all-rounder, then I would judge his selection on the relative merits of what the team management were trying to achieve. However, at the moment, he is not being used as a bowler, or a batsman. Or even as an all-rounder. England would be far better off selecting someone who's likely to do a job in the team, rather than some bloke just because Andy Flower likes the look of him. Luke Wright related rant over. (Until he gets picked again...)