Adam Hollioake

What Adam Hollioake lacked in ability, he made up for with attitude. He was a natural leader, encouraged his Surrey side to get up the opposition's noses, and relished a scrap. His batting was more artisan than artiste but he was strong square of the wicket and possessed a tasty cover-drive. As a seamer he was more effective in the one-day game, where his hard-to-pick knuckle ball fooled batsmen into playing too early. He shone with the bat in the one-day games against the 1997 Australians - even breaking into the Test team - and later that year inherited the captaincy of England's one-day side from Mike Atherton, who continued to lead in the Tests. It was an unprecedented but initially successful move as Hollioake's inexperienced squad lifted the Akai Singer Champions Trophy in Sharjah. But defeats in West Indies and at home to South Africa cost Hollioake his job. His England career appeared to be over when he was dropped after the disastrous 1999 World Cup, but was back in the selectors' thoughts ahead of the 2003 tournament. By then, however, he had suffered the heartbreak of seeing his talented younger brother, Ben, die in a car accident. Adam returned from an enforced break a more mature character and, sometimes batting like a man possessed, lifted Surrey to a poignant third Championship title in four years. At the end of the 2003 season, he embarked on a sponsored walk, cycle and sail from Scotland to Morocco to raise money for the Ben Hollioake Memorial Fund, and announced his intention to retire at the end of 2004. He came back for one match, in 2005, when he took a hat-trick in a fundraiser, and then in 2007 made an unexpected - and largely unsuccessful - return to Twenty20 cricket, playing for Essex.
Lawrence Booth