Sussex star Adams can't wait to start spinning cricket's many different plates
Georgia Adams, captain of Sussex and the Southern Vipers, simply cannot wait for the 2021 season to start - especially given that 2020 was such a pandemic-hit year. "I’m looking forward to it, it's nice to play some T20 cricket again because we didn't get any last summer at all,” she said.
“To play the short format will be great, as it’s always good fun, but also it will be great to put on a Sussex shirt again.
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Hide Ad“I love playing for Sussex and after it was up in the air for a long time about the future of county cricket, to have the opportunity to put on the shirt again, and represent the county is brilliant."
As well as the return to county cricket, there was more good news for Sussex earlier in the year when it was announced on March 24 by the county that they would be joining the London Championship, a 50-over competition containing Kent, Essex, Middlesex and Surrey.
Adams said: “I think it's a hugely positive step and I think it’s a big area in the women's game that needed improving and also intervention after the lack of cricket that we played. We've always felt that we've not had enough opportunities in the summer, and we've not played enough games.
“So, I think what the London Championship competition will do is for those players is to continue playing competitive cricket throughout the summer, at Sussex, as well as playing in their club competitions as well.
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Hide Ad“The more cricket the better for us in the women's game at the moment, so I think it's going to be brilliant for those players to jump in and get more competitive games."
It will be a new experience for Sussex, with their debut campaign starting on Tuesday, June 1 with a trip to Kent.
Adams will also be sampling a new experience of her own this summer as she will be heading over to London as a member of the Oval Invincibles squad for The Hundred, with the Sussex skipper seemingly a fan of the new tournament.
Adams said: “I'm looking forward to it and I hope it takes off. Looking at The Hundred from a women's cricket angle, it's great for us because it's helping grow the women's game and we're playing alongside the men's teams on back-to-back games.
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Hide Ad“At The Oval, the women are kicking off the tournament in a standalone match, which I think sends a huge message out that the ECB is backing women's cricket by kicking off The Hundred with the women's game.
“It might take a couple of years for The Hundred to take off from a tactical point of view because players are going to have to be familiarising themselves with the rules and captains will be getting their head around everything, but I think it will go down well.
“I've been lucky enough to play in a few practice games now, so I've managed to get my head around it a little bit more and familiarise myself with the rules,” said Adams.
Adams took part in a warm-up The Hundred match on April 18 for the Southern Vipers and felt that while the format is brand new it did not feel much different.
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Hide Ad“I think having read through the rules and listening to the changes that they were making for The Hundred I think we were expecting it to feel a lot more different than it did.
“Which I think for a lot of people is a positive in the sense that having played a couple of The Hundred games now, it doesn't feel too alien, it's something quite familiar and people can take comfort in that.
“But at the same time, there is the other angle where people are going, well, why are we changing? Why are we drifting away from T20 cricket when it does not feel much different? So I could see both sides.
“I think that The Hundred is just one of those things that, until it's played this summer, until we see some of the big stars coming in, we won't know the impact of it."
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Hide AdAdams will be going into the new season off the back of a tremendous 2020, captaining Southern Vipers to the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy title and finishing as top run-scorer in the tournament. After that amazing summer, Adams believes she may not reach those heights again.
“If only every season was that good, cricket would be a lot more enjoyable, that's for sure! I'll do well to top a season like that, but at the same time, I’m very conscious that it was such a short season, and it flew by,” she said.
“Whereas the challenges of this season will be playing all the different formats, it won't be the same in terms of settling into a single format and just focusing all your training on one.
“Now it is about getting the balance of preparing myself for different roles, preparing myself for different formats, and then being able to switch it on and off when you switch between games."
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Hide AdWhile it was a great season for Adams and the Vipers, much like many sporting champions across the country they were unable to celebrate the win with their fans due to Covid-19 guidelines.
Adams said: “At the time, it was a huge win and being the first year of the competition, we didn't know how we were going to play and how we were going to come together as a team, so to go and lift that trophy, we were on cloud nine and it didn't dawn on us at all at the time.
“It did feel a bit weird lifting the trophy and celebrating to an empty stand, but I think on reflection it is a shame that we didn't have fans there and that we didn't have crowds to try and build our fan base.
“But I think we saw positives of last season in terms of how live streaming took off. In the women's game, we rarely have games, streamed at all and now nearly every game we play is getting streamed which is brilliant.
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Hide Ad“So, I do think we still found ways to connect with fans wanting to watch. Hopefully, we can get fans back here and continue live streaming so we can, expand our reach to people."
With such an amazing season, there were rumours of a potential England call for Adams - and with plenty of cricket to play this season there certainly could be another chance for the opener to shine on the international stage.
“I've always had one eye on England but at the same time, I’m very conscious of how strong they are as a team and particularly, how good their batting is," she said. “They are a tough side to get into with people like Tammy Beaumont and Danni Wyatt at the top, scoring loads of runs. I would love to represent my country, and it's something that I'm keeping an eye on, but I’m not focusing on it too much.”