Bullish Adams tips Surrey to succeed

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A confident Chris Adams believes Surrey are capable of landing the LV= County Championship title in their first season back in Division One

Chris Adams is confident his Surrey side can challenge for the LV= County Championship title when they return to the top-flight in 2012.

After several years in the doldrums, the London county enjoyed welcome success this summer as they followed promotion to Division One with victory in the Clydesdale Bank 40 final at Lord’s.

Yet while Adams is rightly proud of Surrey’s recent achievements, the team director insists there is still much more to come and sees no reason why they cannot contend for the biggest prize in county cricket.

The 41-year-old, a county champion on three occasions as captain of Sussex, told ecb.co.uk: “We’re very happy at this moment in time, but we’re also very conscious that the last thing we want to do is sit back and relax. We all recognise and acknowledge that now is the time to work even harder.

“We are looking to be competitive across the board next year. This is the first year since I’ve been here that we are able, as a club, to compete for what I still believe is the number one trophy in domestic cricket, that is the County Championship.

“I know that financially the Twenty20 is terrific, if you go all the way to the Champions League and what have you, but I still believe that the number one priority for every county should be to compete to win the championship. I look forward to that.

“The chairman (Richard Thompson) has been a strong vocal force in insisting that this club needs to be in Division One and it needs to be competing for that trophy, so that’s the goal, to front up next year and look to win every competition of course, but in particular make sure we do everything we possibly can towards bringing back a championship title to Surrey.

“I am confident with the team we’ve got. If we play to our potential then there is no doubt that the team could and should compete for that title.”

Adams has now been in charge at the Kia Oval for three years, following his retirement as a player with Sussex in 2008.

Adams, second right, celebrates Surrey's triumph in this summer's Clydesdale Bank 40 final at Lord's. "I think there is a strong sense of finally trusting what we have been doing," explained the 41-year-old

Having overseen significant changes both on and off the field during his time at the helm, the former England international is delighted to see Surrey heading in the right direction once again.

“I think there is a strong sense of finally trusting what we have been doing,” he said.

“That goes for the players as well. You ask the players to work harder, put more hours in and do more for the cause and at some stage they need to see rewards back and we are getting that now.

Elaborating further on the work he has carried out at Surrey, Adams added: “I guess the number one change is the team. The turnaround of players in the time I’ve been here is probably unprecedented.

“In 2009, when I think we let nine players go from the professional staff for one reason or another, that was the first step and it was very obvious to me early on that was what needed to happen.

“Success to me has always been nothing more than the coming together of a group of people who are of the right mindset, who are willing to work as hard as they can to be the best that they can, not just as cricketers but also as people.

“One of the main drivers for me has been the environment that you exist in. If it’s a healthy one where everyone is together and strives to achieve together then you’ve got half a chance.

“We’ve put together a team of people off the field who are like-minded people, highly ambitious, people who want to work and strive to be the best that they can.

A number of young players, such as Tom Maynard, have contributed to Surrey's recent success. "They are an enjoyable team to watch and when they are at their best nobody can touch them," said Adams

“You combine that with a team now that is full of youth and vibrancy, with the odd senior head dotted here and there to put a healthy perspective on things, then you’ve got what I believe is potentially a very powerful set-up and one that should yield many years of good, watchful, enjoyable cricket.”

Indeed, while immediate success is high on Adams’ agenda, it is also clear he has the future very much in mind.

He continued: “We’ve put in place some really strong foundations and we’ve had to fight a lot of really tough battles to get to this point. We’ve had to take huge leaps of faith in terms of our own ability.

“It’s only three years that I’ve been in a managerial role and I’ve brought in people to coach the players (such as Graham Thorpe, now the ECB’s lead batting coach, Ian Salisbury and Ali Brown) who hadn’t had years of coaching experience, but all had years of terrific playing careers behind them.

“They were people that I knew and believed in and I think that’s been such a help moving forward, that we are a team off the field as much as on it now, with a young captain (Rory Hamilton-Brown) at the helm, leading from the front, who exudes quality in everything that he does.

“If you were to write down all the things you would want from a cricket team, if you were to look at Surrey currently you wouldn’t go far wrong. It’s youthful, it’s strong, it’s powerful, it’s exciting, they are an enjoyable team to watch and when they are at their best nobody can touch them.

“The challenge for myself and the coaches is to make sure that they get to be at their best and stay at their best for as long as they possibly can.”

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