Raymond James Bright (born 13 July 1954) is a former Australian Test and One Day International cricketer from Victoria. He was a left arm spin bowler and right handed lower order batsman who captained Victoria for a number of seasons. He was also an Australian vice-captain.
Bright made his One Day International debut for Australia on the tour of New Zealand in the 1973/74 season. He also toured New Zealand in the 1976–77 season, and he then toured England in 1977, and made his Test debut in the Second Test at Old Trafford. Over the next decade he was a fixture in the Australian squad without ever holding down a regular place in the Test or One Day teams, playing in only twenty-five Tests and eleven One Day Internationals during his twelve-year international career. However he did play in fifteen Supertests for the Australian XI during World Series Cricket in 1977–78 and 1978–79, taking 42 wickets at an average of 29 against the West Indies and World XI.
Arguably his finest moment in international cricket came in the famous tied Test in Madras against India in 1986, when he took 5 for 94 in India's second innings. He also captained Australia in one match (a loss), his final One Day International appearance for his country, against Pakistan in April 1986.
Gideon Haigh once wrote that "for a time, Ray Bright was colloquially and rather meanly known for having made almost as many tours as he had played Tests." Bright was selected on a large number of Australian touring squads, including ones to New Zealand (1973–74, 1976–77, 1978, 1981–82 and 1985–86), England (1977, 1980 and 1981), the West Indies (1978–79), Pakistan (1979–80 and 1982–83), Sri Lanka (1980–81), Sharjah (1986) and India (1986–87).
Career A left-arm orthodox spin bowler and useful lower order right-handed batsman, Bright made his club debut for Footscray in 1969/70.
1971 Sheffield Shield debut In December 1971 he was picked for Victoria against Western Australia. He was aged 17, the youngest player picked for the state since World War Two. However he was only 12th man.
He played for Victoria colts and toured Sri Lanka.
1972–73 season Bright found his way back into the Victorian team for the 1972–73 season. His first class debut was against NSW. He took 2–32 and 1–64 and made 67 as a nightwatchman.
Bright kept his place in the Victorian side for the rest of the season.
1973–74 season: Australian selection Bright played well during the 1973–74 season. He took 6–61 and 1–27 against South Australia, 4–41 against WA, took part in a century partnership in a Victoria vs New Zealand game, took 5–75 against WA and 3–8 against SA.
9–55 against Queensland saw his name start to be mentioned as an international prospect. He ended up taking 32 wickets over the summer at an average of 19.6.
He was a "bolter" selection on the 1973–74 tour of New Zealand, replacing Terry Jenner as the third spin option after Ashley Mallett and Kerry O'Keefe. He was the youngest Australian sent abroad since the selectors sent Ian Craig and Ron Archer (18) to England in 1953,
Australian Tour Debut 1973–74 Tour of New Zealand Bright made his debut for Australia in a one-day game against Wellington taking 2–15. He only took one wicket in his first first-class game for Australia, against Canterbury. He took one wicket against Auckland but four against Northern Districts. He only took 8 first class wickets on the tour but had a healthy average of 21.87.
He also made his one-day international debut on tour, playing in the third ODI against New Zealand. Bright made 0–44.
1974 Lancashire League Bright expected to spend the 1974 winter at home when he received a call from the Ramsbottom Club in the Lancashire League. Their current professional player, Wasim Raja, had been called up by Pakistan and they needed a replacement. Bright accepted the offer despite only having three weeks notice. His fee was £1,500 but he had to pay his air fare out of that, so he was forced to get a job as well. He worked a bleaching and dyeing factory.
Bright had little luck on his first weekend and says he "got abused by 500 workers" at this factory on Monday. He added, "You're obviously expected to bat in the top four, and if you don't get some runs or get some wickets, particularly if the side's not doing very well, the locals do tend to let you know very quickly that you've been the worst pro the club's ever had."
However his form improved. Bright said "What I found, probably because I've got very hard hands, early on I was tending to balloon a few to mid off or mid on, which a lot of Australians tend to do on soft wickets. It was a matter of adapting to different conditions and, quite often, the bowlers are a bit slower than what you're used to facing in first class cricket back home."
Bright ended up taking 523 runs for the season at 30.8 and 73 wickets at 9.7. Ramsbottom won the championship for just the third time in their history.
1974–75 and 1975–76 seasons Bright was considered a strong prospect for the 1975 tour of England but found things tougher going at home over the following summer, taking took 10 wickets at 68.6 with a best result of 3–67. At one stage Victorian captain Ian Redpath would bowl himself instead of Bright. "There could have been no more humiliating comment on his form," according to one writer. Australian selectors preferred Terry Jenner and Ashley Mallett as spinners in the test team that summer, and Jim Higgs was picked to go to England in 1975.
Bright attributed his poor form in part to his league stint in England, saying "the wickets were so slow that I ended up bowling a lot quicker. It took me a long, long time to renegotiate what I needed to do in Australian conditions." He added that "another thing was that the batsman weren't taking any risks against me. Before that I suppose they had underestimated me, but after I was selected for New Zealand they took no risks and I had to really fight for my wicket."
Bright's form recovered over the 1975–76 season, taking 22 first class wickets at 27.68. Instead of returning to Ramsbottom over the 1976 English summer, he stayed in Australia and focused on his fitness. He trained with his local Australian rules club Spotswood, for whom he had once played.
1976–77 season He won man of the match for the Gilette Cup semi final against NSW, taking 3–30 and scoring 55 not out in a partnership with Trevor Laughlin that won Victoria the game.
That summer Bright took 19 wickets at an average of 25 making him one of the better performing spinners in the country. Bright attributed this success in part to captain Richie Robinson giving him "more responsibility by allowing me to bowl for longer periods. these days I'm averaging between 20 and 30 overs. Previously it was only 10–12."
"I've been trying to give the ball that extra tweak," added Bright. "You find, especially against the good batsmen, that you have to do something more than just bowl accurately. I'm glad I was born a left arm bowler. Those sort of bowlers, especially spinners, are a very rare breed in Australia. Batsmen here don't get much practice against a left hander. Anything you can do a little different is a help."
Bright's claim for national selection was helped by retirements of Ashley Mallett and Terry Jenner as well as the poor batting and fielding of rivals David Hourn and Jim Higgs. He was picked on the 1977 Tour of New Zealand. Kim Hughes was meant to be 12th man for the third test against Pakistan, but when he fell injured Ray Bright stepped in. There was some talk he might even play that game in tandem with Kerry O'Keefe but in the end Australia went with one spinner.
1977 Tour of New Zealand Bright was the second spinner in the squad, after Kerry O'Keefe. He took five wickets against Otago. and he and O'Keefe ended up taking two-thirds of the wickets on the early part of the tour, Bright with 25 wickets at an average of 14.
Bright was selected in the 12 for the first test but was made 12th man when the Australian selectors decided to keep faith in Gary Gilmour. A draw in the first test saw Greg Chappell consider dropping a batsman to make way for Bright but he eventually decided against it.
In March 1977 Cricketer published a list of Ashes squads from seventeen different experts. Every single squad had Bright and Kerry O'Keefe in it as spinners."17 Pick 17", Cricketer, March 1977 p 8-11 Bright was 12th man for the Centenary Test. He fielded throughout England's two innings as substitute for Rick McCosker who had suffered a broken jaw when batting in Australia's first innings. Following the test's completion it was announced Bright was on the 1977 tour of England.
Test debut 1977 Tour of England: Test debut Early in the tour it was announced that Bright had signed to play World Series Cricket.
Bright had solid form early in the tour, particularly with the bat. He took 4–63 against Gloucestershire and at one stage his batting average was 107. He took 5–91 against Worcestershire.
Bright made his ODI debut in the second one dayer, but only bowled three overs. He was given 11 overs in the third game, taking 1–56.
Bright was in the original 13 man squad for the first test but O'Keeffe was preferred as sole spinner. Australia lost the game and Bright further pressed his claims with 3–34 against Nottinghamshire. By this stage he was leading Australia's tour bowling averages with 20 wickets at 16.
Australia decided to play two spinners for the second, allowing Bright to make his test debut. He took 3–69 in an Australian defeat. He was 12th man for the third test as Australia went back to 3 pacemen but 5–67 against Lancashire saw him reach 35 wickets for the tour at 20. For the 4th test O'Keeffe was dropped in favour of Bright. Bright took 2–66.
Bright kept his spot for the rain-shortened final test. He scored 15 and only bowled six overs.
He ended the tour with 39 wickets at 20.
World Series Cricket Bright signed with World Series Cricket. He and Kerry O'Keeffe were the two Australian spinners.
His signing meant he was banned from training with the Victorian squad. Bright later said he had "no complaints. Much more security with Packer. I could have got dropped back from England and been dropped from the Victorian side."Piesse, Ken, "They're strolling in the parks", Cricketer November 1977 p 49
1977–78 Bright began the 1977–78 summer well taking 5–54 for a Richie Robinson XI against an Ian Chappell XI. In a four-day trial match for WSC Australia against a World XI, Bright made 47 in Australia's first innings, helping them revive from a collapse, and taking three wickets. These efforts saw him picked over O'Keefe and Mallett to be Australia's spinner in the first supertest against the West Indies XI.
Australia batted first and collapsed to 6–66 when Bright came out to bat; he helped lead a late innings rally to 256, with Bright the top scorer on 69. However he was used sparingly as a bowler, taking 1–15 and 0–10 as Australia lost by three wickets.
Bright took 1–62 in a one-day game against the World XI. In the second Supertest he took 2–75 and 0–18 and made two run outs, but Australia lost again. Things were better in the third match, were Bright's hauls of 2–18 and 4–74 helped Australia to a 220 run win.
Bright only bowled four overs in the rain-shortened, low scoring 4th test, which Australia lost against the World XI.
In a one-day game against the West Indies he took 4–37, almost helping Australia win the game. In the final event the West Indies won by one wicket.