Cricket: Adams still rolling back the years

Andre Adams with Dante, 7, wife Ardene, and Balian, 4. He plans to stay with cricket when his playing days end. Photo / Greg Bowker

Take a look at the Auckland team to play Canterbury in the second round of Plunket Shield next week.

It's not who is in the 12 but who is not which might surprise. After all, Andre Adams did take 11 wickets this week in Auckland's 19-run win over Northern Districts to kick-start their shield campaign in rousing fashion.

Eleven wickets and not required next time out. It's not quite as peculiar as it might sound. Adams, Auckland's overseas import this summer, is primarily back for the HRV Cup T20 and Ford Trophy one-day competitions.

But when Auckland were skinny on experience for the start of the shield Adams answered the call - with bells on.

Six for 71 and five for 52: it was the second time this year Adams has taken 11 wickets in a first-class game - the other being for Nottinghamshire, against Hampshire last April.

Not bad for 36. His has been a fascinating career which, if it continues at its current rate for his next, and probably final, two years at Nottinghamshire, might yet end with him trailing only Sir Richard Hadlee as the highest first-class wicket taker of all players to have played tests for New Zealand.

And yet, Adams, lively bowler, hard-hitting batsman, good athlete, played just one of them.

Rodney Redmond is New Zealand's most curious one-test wonder. Against Pakistan at Eden Park in 1973, Redmond hit 107, followed it with 56 in the second innings and that was his lot.

He toured England shortly after, but John Parker was preferred as Glenn Turner's opening partner and Redmond was soon gone.

Adams had his test on the same ground against England in March 2002. New Zealand won by 78 runs. Adams took six for 105, with his final burst in test cricket being three for seven off five overs to end the match.

He deserved better but any unhappiness is long gone now.

"I certainly don't worry about it and I feel very blessed to have played a test for my country," he said. "I'd love to have played more. If you look at my first-class stats they far outweigh my one-day numbers, and the first-class game is the one I've always been in love with."

Adams had a reasonable run of ODI appearances, taking 53 wickets in 42 games between 2001 and January 2007.

He was on hand for the birth of T20 international cricket, also at Eden Park in 2005, the night New Zealand went retro and Ricky Ponting delivered a 98-run masterclass off 55 balls.

But his back caused problems, an MRI scan revealed stress fractures - he remembers "struggling to roll out of bed in the morning; I had to grab the bedside table to pull myself out of bed; that's when I thought there's something wrong" - and eventually he slipped from favour with the selectors.

He got to the 2003 World Cup, missed 2007, fell out of love with New Zealand Cricket and found a fresh and enjoyable lease on life at Nottinghamshire, where he's not looked back. He has taken 223 wickets for them at 23.9 in the last five seasons.

Adams earlier spent the 2004-06 off seasons with Essex. It went well for a while, then turned pear-shaped, but on reflection he knows it was time well spent. Essex's pitches were prepared with their Pakistan legspinner Danish Kaneria in mind.

"It was tough. You had to create more angles, bowl different variations. But as much as you hated it at the time, looking back it was such a fantastic learning curve."

Back in New Zealand and his face not fitting squarely with the national selectors, Adams got a call from the national skipper Stephen Fleming, who was at Nottinghamshire. Fancy a stint here, was the gist of it.

He won't forget Fleming opening the door for him.

"He'd given another New Zealander a chance and I didn't want to let him down. I had a point to prove to Flem that I could bowl and be a valuable cricketer and he gave me free rein. The guys at Notts loved him, he's an absolute legend there."

When Adams saw the way Fleming had the New Zealand captaincy taken away from him that helped him make up his mind to end his ambition to return to the New Zealand team.

"It wasn't as if Flem was playing badly and had nothing left to offer."

And he figured if they could treat Fleming that way, then he had no chance.

He'd had what he called "a horrible year". He had bowled well but couldn't crack the national team. He'd had a disciplinary lapse, over an incident involving Central Districts' wicketkeeper Bevan Griggs.

"I'd had a great summer but couldn't get on the park for New Zealand, no matter what was happening. I trained my butt off, couldn't make the T20 squad after not being named for the (2007) World Cup.

"I thought 'I'm not enjoying this'. I was going through a tough time."

He remembered getting phone calls from officials. Would he change his mind? "I basically said 'if you get rid of Braces [John Bracwell] as coach then I'd consider it."

So it was off to Notts and Adams hasn't looked back. Helping win the county championship two years was his greatest cricket experience - "unbelievable".

A thread runs through a conversation with Adams. In short it's the wisdom of experience.

"When you're young, it's all about bowling fast and hitting people. It was a big thrill when you'd see the batsman dancing around, but when you're young, you live in the moment, as opposed to the general outcome of what could happen over a session.

"I can still bowl fast but there's no future in it. Now 95 per cent of the time it's about maintaining line and length and disciplines. That's what I'm doing much better than I used to do."

Adams cherishes having been part of what he rates one of the best New Zealand teams of modern times in the early 2000s - with players like Fleming, Dion Nash, Adam Parore and Chris Cairns - and he won't walk away from the game when his time is up. He wants to work with young players developing a professional approach and outlook to the game.

He'll certainly have a pile of personal experience to draw on.

Wicket takers

Most first-class wickets taken by a New Zealander*

Sir Richard Hadlee (NZ, Canterbury, Nottinghamshire, Tasmania) 1490

Dipak Patel (NZ, Worcestershire, Auckland) 654

Chris Cairns (NZ, Canterbury, ND, Notts) 647

Stephen Boock (NZ, Otago, Canterbury) 640

Ewen Chatfield (NZ, Wellington) 587

Andre Adams (NZ, Auckland, Essex, Notts) 557

Hedley Howarth (NZ, Auckland) 541

Chris Martin (NZ, Canterbury, Auckland, Warwickshire) 540

Bob Blair (NZ, CD, Wellington) 537

Bill Merritt (NZ, Canterbury, Northamptonshire) 536

* Had to have played test cricket for NZ. That rules out NZ-born Clarrie Grimmett (1424 wickets) who played for Australia and Trinidad-born Sydney Smith (955), as well as Jack Saunders (553). Tom Pritchard (818) is also excluded on those grounds, despite playing one game for NZ against Sir Julien Cahn's XI in 1939.