Interview
Adam aged three
Dom Sibley, Adam Hose and Ian Bell
celebrating a wicket
“It meant I was brought
up in and around
cricket, and I realised
it was a world that I
really liked.”
remember, it was really only when I got to
18 or 19 that I began to feel that I could
potentially do it”.
Part of Adam’s confidence-building
came with the opportunity to head Down
Under and play a season with the semi-
professional Kensington Cricket Club in
Adelaide.
It was a bold move for an 18 year-old
to leave behind his home and family on
the Isle of Wight for three months and
head off to the other side of the world, but
Adam reckons it was the making of him –
both as a cricketer and in a social sense.
“Any young cricketer will aspire to play in
Oz but it’s a big step to take for someone
who’s only just left school.” he says. “As an
18 year-old it certainly takes you right out
of your comfort zone but from a personal
skills point of view, it was brilliant for me.
“I was very lucky because the people I
stayed with on that first visit have become
almost like an Australian mum and dad,
and their place now feels like my home
away from home.”
With the security of that ‘second family’
behind him, the young Adam threw
himself into the cricket and began to
enjoy the outdoors-based social life that
Australia is famous for.
So much so, that since that first season,
he has been back to Adelaide three more
times. At 21 he got to train with the
Kensington Club, and has since returned
twice to play with another district club, Tea
Tree Gully.
Making the grade
Meanwhile, Adam had also been making
an impression on the English cricketing
scene, as a member of Hampshire’s youth
team, the Second XIs of both Glamorgan
and Worcestershire, and the MCC Young
Cricketers at Marylebone.
In July 2015, then aged 22, he made
his debut for Somerset Cricket Club –
ironically, playing against his home county
of Hampshire in the Natwest T20 Blast.
He quickly distinguished himself and
was named Somerset’s Second XI Player
of the Year after scoring most runs in
the Second XI Championship, amassing
644 in his eight matches at an average of
53.66, and two unbeaten centuries in the
same match against Essex at Halstead.
Then, last summer he took the tough
decision to leave Somerset and was
signed by Warwickshire o n a three-year
deal, which he descibed to a BBC reporter
“My goal is the same as
any cricketer so I’d be
lying if I said I didn’t
want to play for the
national team at some
point, but I don’t want
to get ahead of myself . ”
Adam (top row, third from left) at 19 years old with Ventnor CC who play in the
Southern League.
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