https://www.barbadostoday.bb/2016/12/13/adams-in-pybus-out/Former West Indies batsman Jimmy Adams is the new director of cricket for the West Indies Cricket Board, according to regional media reports.
Adams, who represented West Indies as player and captain during his career, replaces Englishman Richard Pybus who did not seek to renew his contract, the Trinidad Guardian reported.
There are also reports that a new head coach, Australian Stuart Law, has been appointed to fill the position left vacant by Phil Simmons who was fired in September.
The decision to fill the two positions were reportedly taken at the weekend at the WICB’s final quarterly meeting which took place in St Maarten.
Jamaican Adams resigned as head coach of English county side Kent earlier this year after serving five seasons between 2012 and October 2016.
Pybus is expected to remain for a while to ease Adams into the position.
Law,48, is the former coach of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh who played one Test and 54 one day internationals for Australia.
Earlier this year, he was the first choice of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) as their head coach but turned down the position, expressing his inability to join the team immediately.
His first assignment will be to lead the regional team in February when England visits the Caribbean for a series of three one day internationals.
Born January 9, 1968, James Clive ‘Jimmy’ Adams is a former represented the Windies 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 arguably at one stage of his career was at par with the legend Sir Don Bradman.
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”.
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.
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. Adams began playing competitive cricket during his primary school years and was encouraged to play cricket and football throughout high school.
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.
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.
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.
But Adams’ carer is definitely a story of two tales as in the first half of his Test career, he averaged 61.34 compared to 25.58 in the second half. This differential is the largest in Test history.
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 and the slide in his career.
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 while on a 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.
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.
He 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 last post was coaching the Kent County Cricket Club and was the only West Indian head coach of an English county cricket team. Under his guidance, the club had shown improvement since his joining in 2012, resulting in extension of his contract.
The Jamaican quit his position at Kent earlier this year after serving five seasons between 2012 and October 2016 as coach, to make himself available for either the position of director of cricket or head coach of the West Indies team.
