Andre Adams came to Nottinghamshire in 2007 having spent two seasons at Essex and as a veteran of 42 one-day internationals for New Zealand. His one test appearance was against England at Eden Park in April 2002 in which he took six wickets, including those of Michael Vaughan, Nasser Hussain and Andrew Flintoff.
Adams most memorable international performance came against the West Indies in the 2003 Cricket World Cup, when he took 4-44 and hit 35 off 24 balls to earn a vital win for the Black Caps. He was a part of the Auckland side that won the New Zealand's domestic one-day cup and Twenty20 tournament in 2010-11, and travelled with the team in September to India for the 2011 Champions League T20.
Notts registered Adams as an overseas player for the 2007 season, during which he played four LV County Championship games, with a six-wicket haul against local rivals Derbyshire his best performance. He was awarded his Nottinghamshire County Cap in that first season. He had a fine 2010 County Championship, topping the bowling charts for the country with 68 Wickets, including the wicket of Shivnarine Chanderpaul to seal the title at Old Trafford on the last day of the season.
Adams's West Indian parentage – he was born in Auckland, on 17 July 1975, to a mother from Guyana and a father from St Vincent – enabled him play under the Kolpak ruling until he left the county in 2014. He knew something of Nottinghamshire cricket before his county debut, having played for Kimberley Institute in the Premier League – picking up awards for both batting and bowling – in the 2000 and 2001 seasons.
Adams, a right arm fast-medium bowler with a clever mix of slower balls and cutters, was the club’s player of the year in 2010 and 2011 and leading wicket-taker in 2012. For Notts, he finished with 344 wickets at 24.18 in red ball cricket with a best return of 7-32. He was a keen fielder, taking 56 catches, and if his batting figures are not quite all-rounder class, he contributed many useful runs, particularly in white ball cricket, with nine First-Class Fifties and a top score of 84, made against Yorkshire, from 1,894 runs at 18.38.
One innings he might recall with some amusement was in a match at Caythorpe in 2013, Jimmy Anderson’s XI v Graeme Swann’s XI as part of Swann's benefit year, in which Adams was out first ball to the unlikeliest of bowlers – his county team-mate Rikki Wessels!
Adams signed a three-month contract with Hampshire for the beginning of the 2015 season but injuries limited him to only three First-Class appearances and he announced his retirement at age 39. In that same year, Adams joined the Auckland Cricket Club as bowling coach and went on to become Auckland A Head Coach.
July 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 593