Luke Wright has never been the kind of cricketer to hold anything back.

Wright made a name for himself as an all-action all-rounder in his younger years before a knee injury prevented him from bowling any more.

Although he has matured into a more intelligent and thoughtful cricketer things still tend to happen when Wright takes centre stage.

Anybody who witnessed his world record 153 not out from just 66 balls at Chelmsford last summer will not need reminding of his ability to produce something very special when it is needed.

The question is will captaincy change Wright having taken over as Sussex skipper from Ed Joyce for the NatWest T20 Blast this season?

Will the responsibility of being in charge make him curb his natural attacking instincts.

Not a bit of it. Instead of reigning himself in the 30-year-old hopes his all-or-nothing approach will rub off on his team-mates as Sussex, who include Sri Lanka superstar Mahela Jayawardene for the first half the T20 season, attempt to put two disappointing seasons in the shortest format of the game behind them.

And when he leads them out at home for the first time, against Gloucestershire today, the Sussex players will have Wright’s mantra of “do or die” ringing in their ears.

Wright said: “One of my messages is that I want people to play with freedom. I will back them to the hilt as captain as long as we have a good go at it. I don’t want to die wondering. I’d rather we take risks and fail than go the other way and just miss out so that is the message I’ll be giving to all the batters.

“I know people make mistakes. I have made more than most in my career but you’ve got to be willing to accept that and back people as much as you can.

“More than anything I want people to go out and enjoy themselves as you tend to play your best cricket when you enjoy it. People come to watch Twenty20 because it is exciting and that is why we love playing it so we should embrace that.

“Twenty20 is a funny game because if you make three or four low scores you’ve got to take more risks in the next game to get a score. If you try to play safe it just makes it worse.

“That is where I hope I can create the right environment where people feel they have the freedom to dare to take risks. It won’t always come off but that is a risk we need to be willing to take.”

Wright hopes the new approach will help reinvigorate a Sharks side which has lost its teeth in the last few years.

Sussex won just one of their ten games as they finished bottom of the South Group in 2013 and, although they improved last season, were still some way short of making it through to the quarter-finals.

Their start this time was disappointing too as they lost from a winning position at Canterbury on Friday.

Such failures have been hard to take for Wright, who helped Sussex lift the trophy in 2009 and reach finals day in 2012 and he is desperate to rediscover the winning formula.

“The last few years we have not been good enough,” said Wright.

“The South Group is notoriously tough with so many good players that if you let your standards drop even a fraction then you are in trouble.

“You always hate losing but the fact we get such good crowds here for Twenty20 makes it even more disappointing. Even when we have been struggling in the last two years they keep turning out to support us so we’d love to give them something to cheer.

“We want to be making it to finals days and quarter-finals so we will be looking to put the things right but we know that we will need to play much better cricket in order to do that.”

Wright is also looking forward to the challenge of captaining Sussex for the first time having had a taste for the role with England Lions last year.

Many see him as a potential successor to Ed Joyce in the longer forms of the game when the Ireland international retires but Wright is not looking too far ahead.

“I can’t wait to get out there,” he said. “But the most important thing is to win.

“Losing always hurts but you feel it more as captain. It is so important to get off to a good start as well because it builds confidence and allows you to gain some momentum.

“The last couple of years we’ve started really badly and although we’ve finished quite strongly it hasn’t been enough.