Christopher John Adams (born 6 May 1970) is an English former

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

er who briefly represented his nation at

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

and

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

level. He is the current interim head coach of the Dutch national team.

Playing career

An aggressive right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

, occasional right-arm

off spin Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right arm, right-handed spin bowling, spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal Delivery (cr ...

bowler and specialist

slip Slip or SLIP may refer to: Science and technology Biology * Slip (fish), also known as Black Sole * Slip (horticulture), a small cutting of a plant as a specimen or for grafting * Muscle slip, a branching of a muscle, in anatomy Computing and ...

fielder, Adams enjoyed a successful first-class career for

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

and

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

. Adams made his first-class debut as an eighteen-year-old for Derbyshire in one match the 1988 season and stayed there until the 1997 season, when he left to join Sussex as

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. He is the longest serving county captain in Sussex's history. He captained Sussex to the 2003, 2006 and 2007 County Championship titles, and was one of five

Wisden Cricketers of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

in 2004 for his efforts in the previous calendar year. He had a brief career at international level for England, playing five Tests and five One-day Internationals between May 1998 and January 2000. He made his Test debut in 1999 against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

, and came to the crease for his maiden Test innings to face

Allan Donald Allan Anthony Donald (born 20 October 1966) is a South African former cricketer who is also the current bowling coach of Bangladesh national cricket team. Often nicknamed 'White Lightning' due to his lightning quick bowling, he is considered ...

on a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

, with England in the perilous position of four wickets down for two runs; he successfully negotiated the hat-trick, but was caught behind off Donald in both innings, for 16 and 1. Failing to reproduce his domestic form, Adams

averaged In mathematics and statistics, the arithmetic mean ( ) or arithmetic average, or just the ''mean'' or the ''average'' (when the context is clear), is the sum of a collection of numbers divided by the count of numbers in the collection. The colle ...

just 13 in Tests and 17.75 in ODIs. In a first-class career that ran from 1988 until 2008, Adams scored 19,535 runs, with an impressive 48 centuries and a highest score of 239. In late 2006, he agreed a four-year deal with

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

to become both captain and director of professional cricket, but dramatically reversed this decision on 14 November, saying that he did not feel able to deal with such a role at this stage of his career. His change of heart left Yorkshire "shell-shocked" but Sussex "thrilled". Adams announced he was to step down as Sussex captain on 14 September 2008, guiding Sussex to the Pro40 Division One Title the same day. He subsequently announced his retirement from first-class cricket, upon his appointment as cricket manager of

Surrey County Cricket Club Surrey County Cricket Club (Surrey CCC) is a first-class club in county cricket, one of eighteen in the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Surrey, including areas that now form South London ...

Coaching career

After taking over at Surrey in 2008 and appointing a young captain in

Rory Hamilton-Brown Rory James Hamilton-Brown (born 3 September 1987) is a former English first-class cricketer who last played for Sussex. Previously, he was captain of Surrey until August 2012. Playing primarily as a right-handed batsman, he was also an occasio ...

Surrey gained promotion and won the domestic 40 over competition in 2011. He was coach when the Surrey team suffered the death of one of their young first team players

Tom Maynard Thomas Lloyd Maynard (25 March 1989 – 18 June 2012) was a Welsh professional cricketer who played for Glamorgan and Surrey, and was selected for the England Lions tour to Bangladesh. On the night of his death, he was stopped by police in Wimble ...

on 18 June 2012, on a tube line after fleeing from police who stopped his car with him four times over the alcohol limit with cocaine and MDMA in his system. Even though Maynard's housemate and captain Hamilton-Brown, who had been out with Maynard that fateful evening, left to join Sussex, questions remained about the disciplinary attitudes at the club. On 17 June 2013, it was announced by

that Adams had been sacked, along with his first team coach

Ian Salisbury Ian David Kenneth Salisbury (born 21 January 1970) is an English former cricketer, one of the few leg-spinners to play Test cricket for England in recent years. Salisbury played in fifteen Tests and four One Day Internationals between 1992 an ...

References

External links

Cricinfo player profile of Chris Adams

HowSTAT! statistical profile of Chris Adams
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Chris 1970 births Living people Derbyshire cricketers English cricketers England One Day International cricketers England Test cricketers ACT Comets cricketers People from Whitwell, Derbyshire Sussex cricket captains Sussex cricketers Wisden Cricketers of the Year English cricket coaches Coaches of the Netherlands national cricket team English expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands English expatriate sportspeople in Australia First-Class Counties Select XI cricketers