Paul Regan Adams (born 20 January 1977) is a former South African

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. A

left-arm unorthodox spin Left-arm unorthodox spin, also known as slow left-arm wrist-spin, is a type of spin bowling in the sport of cricket. Left-arm unorthodox spin bowlers use wrist spin to spin the ball, and make it deviate, or 'turn' from left to right after pitchin ...

bowler with a unique bowling action, Adams played for the Test and ODI teams for

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

sporadically since the 1990s. Meanwhile, his

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 ...

career registered 412 wickets. He was also the coach of the

Cape Cobras The Six Gun Grill Cape Cobras are a franchise cricket team representing the Western Province, Boland, and South Western Districts areas in South African domestic cricket. The team's home venues are Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town, Boland ...

cricket team.

Bowling action

Adams's bowling action was highly unorthodox and

Mike Gatting Michael William Gatting (born 6 June 1957) is an English former cricketer, who played first-class cricket for Middlesex (1975–1998; captain 1983–1997) and for England from 1977 to 1995, captaining the national side in twenty-three Test ma ...

likened it to a "frog in a blender". Though his action initially caught world batsmen by surprise, he was soon exposed for lack of variety by the Australians. As such, he became less effective.

International career

In December 2006 he was recalled to the Test side for the series against

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, only to be dropped from the squad before the first Test. He held the ball with two fingers of his left hand (thumb, and the index finger). He announced his retirement from professional cricket on 2 October 2008, more than four years after his last Test match and five years after his last ODI.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Paul 1977 births Living people Cape Cobras cricketers Cape Coloureds Commonwealth Games gold medallists for South Africa Cricketers at the 1996 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 1998 Commonwealth Games South Africa One Day International cricketers South Africa Test cricketers South African cricketers Western Province cricketers Cricketers from Cape Town South African cricket coaches Commonwealth Games medallists in cricket