Luke Wright says he is “hugely proud” to be the first player to a major T20 landmark.

The Sussex Sharks opener went past 5,000 Vitality Blast runs during his innings at Glamorgan on Sunday.

Wright’s knock of 46 was his best in the Blast so far this year.

He made his debut in 2004, the second season of T20, against Surrey at Hove.

The teams meet again at the same venue on Thursday.

 

Wright joined Sussex from Leicestershire at the end of the 2003 season.

He had not played for the Foxes in the inaugural Twenty20 Cup.

Now 37, he has 5,026 T20 runs for Sussex at an average of 32.84 and strike rate of 148.47 per 100 balls.

In 166 innings, he has five centuries and 30 fifties with just nine noughts.

His 182 sixes is also an all-time Blast record.

Wright’s highest score in the competition was an unbeaten 153 from 66 balls at Chelmsford in 2014.

Joe Denly, who has played for both Kent and Middlesex, is next in the run-scoring list with 4,619.

Then comes, like Wright, another one-club man in James Vince of Hampshire with 4,598.

Current Sharks skipper Ravi Bopara is 16 short of 4,000 Blast runs and ranks eighth on the all-time list.

All but 579 of his Blast runs were made with Essex.