I was brought up to support Australia, so found it nearly impossible to like overseas players.
That was especially true of the England teams. Even during their horrendous series in 1974-75 and later when so many Aussie teams were beating them so often in the ’90s and early 2000s, I found it hard to like any one player.
The same applied to other nations. The West Indies were hard to like because they were consistently beating my Australians. I didn’t subscribe to the “Hadlee is a w****er” cries, but had no trouble not liking New Zealand, maybe because they owned us in rugby. Pakistan with Waqar and Wasim were also bad news, as were the South Africans, until they produced a spinner named Paul Adams.
Maybe it was his quirky action, maybe it was the energy and enthusiasm he brought to the game, maybe it was his infectious smile. I don’t know, but this guy really caught my attention.
He did the same to everyone in the cricket world when he came into the Proteas’ side in 1995. Mike Gatting apparently described him as a frog in a blender, having seen his bowling action. Perhaps a better description about how he delivers the ball is the contortionist.
(William West/AFP via Getty Images)
If you look at his action at the moment of delivery, there’s no way he can be watching the batsman, though Adams claimed he could see them out of the corner of his eye.
Adams’ run-up and his action straight after he let the ball go were perfectly normal and there’s lots of energy about his bowling. It’s only in his delivery stride that things are skewed, yet somehow he managed to get the ball into some good places.
Adams, or ‘Gogga’ as he’s known to his mates (Afrikaans for insect), started his cricket life as a junior batsman, but switched to spin bowling and has used his unusual action ever since.
He copped plenty from opposition sides right the way through his cricketing career and it says a lot for his strength of character that he put up with this abuse and carved out a very successful career for his country. In first-class cricket alone, he played 141 matches and took 412 wickets, which is a fair return for a bowler of his type.
He was chosen to play his first Test at the age of 18 back in 1995 and was the youngest Test player to have been given a South African Test cap.
Adams rarely dominated opposition batting line-ups but was still good enough to take five wickets in an innings four times, all in the sub-continent. His biggest problem was a lack of variation and once good players of spin worked that out, he was treated as just another Test spinner.
South Africa had a pretty useful attack in that era, with guys like Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini, Andrew Hall, Dwaine Pretorius and Andre Nel all part of the bowling equation during his career. This often meant his role was to keep things tidy while these guys were having a spell, although he came more into his own when the Proteas played in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The other aspect that is worth mentioning is his courage and love for the game. He’s only a little bloke, barely five foot six (167 centimetres), yet it’s hard to remember him taking a backward step when it was his turn to bat. He was far from being an all-rounder, yet it was obvious he tried his best to support his team with the blade, while wearing opposition sledging with a smile. Couple that with the obvious delight he displayed when he took a wicket and this is a guy who lives and loves cricket.
His Test career numbers make for surprisingly good reading: 45 Tests from 1995 to 2004, 134 wickets at an average of 32.87, an economy rate of 2.98 and a strike rate of 66.0.
He’s taken by far the most wickets of any left-arm spinner to have played Tests for South Africa and is streets ahead of any left-arm Australian spinner for that matter.
Not bad for a frog in a blender.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
With you there Paul, what's not to like about quirky? There's plenty being said about Smith & Labuschagne following Chanderpaul in the quirky batting techniques, but I remember a few quirky Aussie bowlers like Alan Hurst, Max Walker and appropriately for this article, Froggy Thompson. Anything which surprises a batsman is good with me!
Chris.P.Bacon
Guest
"....stifle a promising 23 run stand!" ....haha...I had a century in me mate! :laughing: (....and, to clarify, we were playing on a carpet pitch near a creek in suburban Sydney during a hot summer and the snakes were everywhere! (.....we were also quite inebriated so I'm sure that the odd brown branch may have been 'misclassified')) ;)
Nat
Roar Guru
Yeah I caught a bit of Matth's series by pure chance, really good. I like my Cricket, I can happily sit through a test. My birthday usually coincides with the 1st test at the Gabba, Day 2,3,4 and I'm in heaven. Geez, I thought I came from a rural place. We've have snakes but not enough to stifle a promising 23 run stand! Was there a fire? :laughing:
Chris.P.Bacon
Guest
Good to see you here Nat. I can never pretend that I'm a cricket tragic - as I'm not -but I do follow matth's alphabet series and occasionally leave messages in other threads. I appreciate that people make an effort and Paul writes well - for a Dragon's supporter. ;) (I've played two cricket matches in my life - both in the '70's - where I managed a '0' and an '11' not out. We played for beers/Scotch against our older brothers and I really think I could have kicked on from my '11' but the game was called off due to brown snakes - no b.s.!) ;)
Nat
Roar Guru
What is it about the poms they are so hard to like. I respected Botham, after the fact and Collingwood but that's about it. The Sth Africans though, Rhodes and Steyn were quite the entertainers. I had forgotten about Adams until now. Amazingly accurate for that action. Good read.
Nat
Roar Guru
I've commented on both Cricket and Rugby (polite too...). Strange times indeed.
TJ Grimwade
Guest
Apologies. I need to correct myself. A bit of research shows Bob Bitmead actually played in the 1966-67 unofficial tour of NZ under Les Favell. He batted right hand, bowled left hand, which may explain his highly unusual action, whereby he let go with the “wrong arm”. Regardless, he was a bit of a hero in Victoria in his day.
Tigerbill44
Roar Guru
it's Ashok Malhotra.
Tigerbill44
Roar Guru
I often think about writing about some of my favorite players, who I saw young and thought that great future lied ahead of them; but somehow they failed to shine enough. I like to talk about them as well. Just to name a few from a long list: Ashol Malhotra, Laxman Shivaramakrishnan (Ind), Md. Wasim (Pak), Chris Tavare (believe it or not)- Norman Cowans (eng), Greg Ritchie, Greg Blewitt (Aus), GreatBatch (NZ), Madugalle, (SL) and many more.
TJ Grimwade
Guest
Does anyone remember Bob Bitmead? Playing for Victoria, he too had a weird bowling action that bamboozled batsmen for a season or two back in the 1960s. As I recall, he was successful enough to be picked for the unofficial tour of New Zealand in about 1969. But as soon as the batters overcame their astonishment and worked out he was not much more than an ultra-orthodox off-spinner, his first-class career pretty much came to an end.
Chris.P.Bacon
Guest
A really good read Paul. Thanks mate!
Tigerbill44
Roar Guru
ER of 2.98 is pretty impressive for a wrist spinner.
badmanners
Roar Rookie
Yep, and with me the umpire would be ducking out of the way of the ball more often than not!
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
:stoked:
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
He must have superb balance. I can guarantee you if I tried that I'd end up doing face plants more often than not :stoked:
Paul
Roar Guru
yep, I played against a bloke who not only bowled off the wrong foot, but let the ball go well behind the bowling crease. Nearly got me the first time I saw it, because I was guilty of doing exactly what you described. Once I got past that, I realised he bowled complete rubbish and had a lovely time.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
Yeah, I suspect the top order bats would have been able to disregard the eccentric action once they got used to it but I still reckon the lower order might not have found it so easy. Not that it matters Paul, just an observation based on personal experience. In grade cricket in the bush there was a medium pacer who had the weirdest action I ever came across and most of our lower order fell for the trap of watching the bowler and not the ball. No matter how many times I told them to just block it out and concentrate on the ball they all played really late, too late, and got cleaned up by him.
Paul
Roar Guru
My first thought, when I read your comment was to agree Targa, but when I went back and looked at their numbers Maharaj, right now, is only in front of Adams in one category, strike rate ( 60.0 versus 66.0). That's not to say Maharaj won't come into his own in the next few years, given spinners don't traditionally mature till their in their 30's. The one thing he'll never have is the Paul Adams wow factor when he let's the ball go!
Paul
Roar Guru
I'm surprised he didn't bowl more loose deliveries with that action, Tiger. I'm sure it has to be incredibly hard to bowl that way, but to consistently get it on a length at Test level against quality players of spin? You're right, there were times when he bowled some absolute "hit me's", but it was interesting to look at his economy rate of 2.98 for a wrist spinner. Compare that with his contemporary, Nicky Boje who was a finger spinner (2.96) or even Nathan Lyon (3.00) and Adams also had his moments when he kept things tight.
Paul
Roar Guru
the impression I got from my reading was the top order players from England, for example, found him hard to come to terms with, at least initially. I remember watching him first bowl against Australia and batsmen were treating each delivery like a hand grenade - till Mark Waugh decided to play him as he would any other spinner. Waugh used his feet and like all spinners, Adams struggled. Once Waugh showed the rest what to do, Adams was relatively ineffective against us - but it didn't stop me from enjoying watching him play.