Interview: Chris Adams

By Jamie Lillywhite

Adams has been brought in to bring champagne moments to Yorkshire

No-one could accuse Chris Adams of resting on laurels.

Having left his native Derbyshire to pursue his captaincy ambitions, he helped transform Sussex from perennial also rans to county cricket kingpins.

Now, after lifting the Championship trophy twice in four years, Adams has accepted the new challenge of combining a captaincy and management role at Yorkshire, a club which narrowly escaped relegation last term.

He is leaving a cricket 'family' at Hove for a county where in the past, players and administrators have not always sung from the same hymn sheet.

So how will Adams adapt to life a club where supporters do not hope for success - they expect it.

The man who took him to Hove nine seasons ago was Tony Pigott, Sussex's former chief executive, who had identified him as a strong character.

"Sussex were called southern softies and we wanted a different attitude in the dressing room," Pigott told BBC Sport.

"We thought Chris was the best player not playing Test cricket at the time.

"We wanted someone to be there all the time, change the attitude, score the runs and perform and that's exactly what he did."

Adams and Younis Khan will shore up the Yorkshire middle order

Adams scored four centuries in his first season at Sussex, as the club recovered from finishing bottom of the old 18-team Championship the previous year.

Now he will have to galvanise a Yorkshire side who may well be without their three leading run-scorers from 2006, with Darren Lehmann and Michael Lumb having already departed and Anthony McGrath debating a new deal.

Pigott is convinced Adams, who will be 37 in May, is capable of finding a successful formula with his third county.

"In the long run he'll do very well. It's difficult to say in the short term how quickly he can turn it round but he's the right guy to do it.

"Yorkshire have made a very wise decision.

"When he came to Sussex we were in a worse position than Yorkshire are now, we lost five or six players in that winter alone and hadn't strengthened the squad.

"Expectations have always been high at Yorkshire but at this moment they have got everything to gain, and with Chris Adams I think they have an excellent chance of succeeding in the future."

Pigott, who also played for Surrey in a 20-year first-class career that began in 1976, was not completely surprised by Adams's departure from Sussex.

"It's difficult to see what else he could achieve," he said.

"Yorkshire offered him a future after he's finished as a player, I don't think Sussex did and because of that it's a no-brainer."

Having worked closely with coaches Peter Moores and then Mark Robinson whilst captain at Sussex, Adams will assume an even more influential role at Yorkshire, in charge of all first team matters.

"The team ethos is very important to him," Pigott explained.

"The reason Sussex succeeded is that the whole club bound together. Admin, sponsors, supporters - everybody became a unit."