James Adams (cricketer, born 1980)
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| Full name | James Kenneth Adams | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 23 September 1980 Winchester, Hampshire, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | Bison, Hippy, Jimmy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Left-handed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Left arm medium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2002–2018 | Hampshire (squad no. 4) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2008 | Dorset | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2010/11–2011/12 | Auckland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2013 | Marylebone Cricket Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: Cricinfo, 28 September 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
James Henry Kenneth Adams (born 23 September 1980) is an English former professional cricketer who played county cricket for Hampshire between 2002 and 2018. Born in Winchester, Adams made his way through the youth system at Hampshire and played age-group cricket for England, including in the 2000 Under-19 World Cup. After completing his school-level education, Adams studied at Loughborough University, where he played first-class cricket for Loughborough UCCE. Having made his senior debut for Hampshire in 2002, Adams took several seasons to establish himself in the team as an opening batsman. By the 2006 season, he became a regular in the Hampshire team in the County Championship and became establishe himself as a limited-overs batsman in the seasons that followed. Adams succeeded Dimitri Mascarenhas as Hampshire captained in the County Championship and one-day cricket in 2013, becoming the first Hampshire-born cricketer to captain the county since the Second World War. Under his leadership, they gained promotion from Division Two of the Championship in 2014. He had success in Twenty20 (T20) cricket, winning the Twenty20 Cup in 2010 and 2012, and the 2010–11 HRV Cup in New Zealand with Auckland.
Adams made 233 first-class, 133 one-day and 123 T20 appearances for the Hampshire between 2002 and 2018, scoring nearly 20,000 runs across all formats. In first-class cricket, he passed 1,000 runs in a season on five occasions and made 25 centuries, five of which were double-centuries. In one-day and T20 cricket, he scored 4,032 runs and 2,643 runs respectively. Possessing a classical batting technique that was naturally suited to the first-class game, the cricket journalist Freddie Wilde observed that Adams had begun his career as "a red-ball player first and white-ball second", but later became "an unlikely batting leader of a T20 dynasty" during Hampshire's success in the format in the early 2010s. After retiring from playing in 2018, he went into coaching with Hampshire and the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League.