Adams agrees to lead Sussex (25 Nov 1997)

SUSSEX finally got their man yesterday when Chris Adams, the batsman reluctantly released by Derbyshire, agreed to sign a three-year contract and to take over the captaincy of the county who finished bottom in the championship and Sunday league last

25-Nov-1997

Tuesday 25 November 1997

Adams agrees to lead Sussex

Christopher Martin-Jenkins

Adams will sign formally tomorrow and will become one of the three best-paid county cricketers although Sussex's chief executive, Tony Pigott, said that talk of an £80,000-a-year salary was "complete rubbish".

Hove is an unlikely place on recent evidence to try to launch an England career, but Adams confirms that this remains his overriding ambition. "To play for England is my absolute number one priority," he said. "But I needed a challenge to take my own career forward.

"I was tempted by other offers, especially one from Notts, but this is a tremendous opportunity to take charge of a side which needs rebuilding, with the support of a committee which clearly intends to push Sussex back up the ladder."

Ironically, Adams, 27, would be of less direct value to his new employers if he were to play for England, despite missing selection for all the official tours this winter for the second year running. Always a talented stroke-player, he learnt under the dual tutelage of the ill-fated Australian pairing of Dean Jones and Les Stillman in 1996 to play himself in more carefully.

"Les told me bluntly when he came to Derby that I was living in a dream world if I thought I had any chance of playing Test cricket the way I was batting. I had just made a flashy 30-odd against Surrey, mainly over gully's head.

"In the last two seasons I've moved my feet much better and learnt how to control the adrenalin with breathing and relaxing techniques, especially at the start of an innings."

Adams scored six championship hundreds in 1996 and two in 12 games last summer, plus a powerful 91 against the Australians, which contributed to their only first-class defeat by a county. A week later Jones abdicated the captaincy, Stillman was demoted as coach and Adams's departure became certain.

As batsman, brilliant slip fielder and captain he will fill the hole left by the departure of Alan Wells for Kent a year ago. Unlike Wells, moreover, Adams is an extrovert. The lack of one in a dressing-room of earnest, determined young players was keenly felt by this year's captain, Peter Moores, who will be player-coach in 1998.

Sussex are to play a floodlit AXA League match against Surrey next year at the Oval.

The England and Wales Cricket Board's corporate image was boosted yesterday by the appointment of Richard Peel as the new director of corporate affairs.

Peel, 45, controller of communications for BBC news, is the final appointment in the reorganisation of the board's activities and has been asked to develop a "proactive public relations programme" when he moves to Lord's in the new year.

The board have not done badly in this respect in recent times anyway. Yesterday they released a new coaches manual, designed as a definitive technical guide for the 1,700 people who take coaching courses every year under the Rover Cricket Coach Initiative.

Micky Stewart, the ECB's retiring director of coaching, expressed the hope that the manuals would be especially useful in secondary schools.

He stressed, however, that the culture of the game was changing. "Until recently the concern has been to give everyone a game; long may that continue, but in future, for the talented players we now identify at the age of 10, the emphasis will be on how to win."

All the officials at Lord's, new and old, agree that the public perception will not change until the national team start winning Test series regularly, but as the under-19 team set out today for their tour of South Africa and the youth World Cup, it is encouraging that they can feel a part of a seamless national enterprise.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)