Barry's Beef

Of course I refer not to the Scandanavian frog-like creature with its nob hanging out but rather Paul Adams, the South African spinner. Yep, sorry folks, it's cricket time. Paul Adams emerged on the scene back in about '95 and instantly earned the moniker of 'frog in a blender' for his wholly unique bowling action. Upon entering international cricket he was a hit and in his initial series he totally bamboozled the opposition. Three guesses who South Africa were playing? Ok, one guess. Yep, England. An England with Jason Gallian batting at #3 and Richard Illingworth as our spinner.
After a while, Adams got rumbled for lacking variation and lost his place on and off to Pat Symcox and Nicky Boje before being permanently dropped in favour of Boje and latterly Robin Peterson and Johan Botha. Yet with Botha only recently back after being banned for a dodgy 'chucking' action and Peterson having a test bowling average of over 50 Adams has been recalled and is in the squad with Boje for the upcoming series against India.
Interestingly, Adams' international career had appeared to be...moribund whilst still averaging a decent enough 32.87 in test match cricket. Guess who's test match bowling average is currently 40.60 (i.e. that he concedes almost 10 more runs per wicket taken). Yep, it's Ashley Giles.

Labels: Ashley Giles, cricket, frog in a blender, Paul Adams