Jimmy Adams: 12 facts about former West Indian captain

Jimmy Adams is a former West Indian cricketer and a captain of the team who represented them for almost a decade from 1992 to 2001.

Born January 9, 1968, James Clive ‘Jimmy’ Adams is a former West Indian cricketer and a captain of the team who represented them for almost a decade from 1992 to 2001. A left-handed batsman and a slow left-arm orthodox bowler, Adams made 54 Test and 127 One-Day International (ODI) appearances for the team. Known for his defensive approach, Adams continues to be involved with the game post-retirement. On his 48th birthday, Chinmay Jawalekar looks at 12 facts from the life of the Jamaican, who at one stage of his career was at par with the legend Sir Don Bradman.

1.  Early life: Adams was born to a pair of doctors, but chose cricket as his profession. No prizes for guessing where he derives the clinical approach in his game from. He grew up in St Mary, Jamaica, in a community where “everyone liked cricket”.

2.  Stadium debut: His father took him to see his first Test, which was played between West Indies and India at Sabina Park, Kingston, when he was eight years old.

3.  Sports-nut: As a schoolboy, Adams had keen inclination towards different sports. He played both cricket and football with equal interest. He also took part in track-and-field sports.  Adams began playing competitive cricket during his primary school years and was encouraged to play cricket and football throughout high school.

4.  Focus towards cricket: As he got older, preparing for First-Class cricket matches often coincided with his schoolboy football season. West Indian cricket legend Rohan Kanhai, who was then the Jamaica team coach, would not allow the young Adams to move in and out of his coaching programme. Thus, he had to make a firm decision and opted to play cricket.

5.  Replaced Viv Richards: Adams made his Test debut against South Africa in 1992 replacing the retired Sir Vivian Richards. His four wickets in the first innings and 79 not out in the second proved crucial in the end as his team won the match by 52 runs.

6.  Bradmanesque numbers: In the first 12 Tests of his career, Adams scored 1,132 runs at a majestic batting average of near 87, a record bettered in the history of Test cricket only by Bradman.

7.  A career of two halves: In the first half of his Test career, Adams averaged 61.34 compared to 25.58 in the second half. This differential is the largest in Test history.

8.  Slide: In the mid-1990s Adams began to struggle at international level. In a tour match against Somerset during West Indies’ 1995 tour of England, he was hit by a bouncer by bowler Andre van Troost in the fading light, shattering his cheekbone. This was probably the incident that triggered the crisis in confidence.

9.  Freak injury: During South Africa’s 1998 tour, Adams met with a mysterious injury that ruled him out of the tour. While trying to cut the bread through a knife while on plane, Adams ended up hurting the the tendon in his right hand. At that particular moment, the tour was done and dusted for him. He came off the plane and went straight to the hospital.

10.  Captaincy: Adams was appointed as West Indies captain in 2000, replacing Brian Lara. His tenure was short though, leading the team to a 0-5 series loss on the 2000-01 tour of Australia, after which he lost both the captaincy (to Carl Hooper) and his place in the national team. In the process, he also became the first player to captain a Test team to seven consecutive defeats.

11.  Post-cricket career: Adams continued to be involved with cricket post completion of his playing career. In 2006, he was appointed the manager of the West Indies Under-19 side. In 2008, Adams succeeded Barry Richards as the president of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association (FICA). Later in the year, he was appointed technical director of Jamaica’s cricket development programme. Adams can often been seen commenting on cricket for Sky Sports in the United Kingdom.

12.  Coaching: Adams is currently coaching the Kent County Cricket Club and is the only West Indian head coach of an English county cricket team. Under his guidance, the club has  shown improvement every since his joining in 2012, resulting in extension of his contract.

(A self-confessed cricket freak, Chinmay Jawalekar is a senior writer with CricLife and CricketCountry. When not writing or following cricket, he loves to read, eat and sleep. He can be followed here @CricfreakTweets)