Success Runs in the Family – Profile of Sussex Cricket’s Georgia Adams

Georgia Louise Adams turns 29 next month but has already achieved so much since she broke into the Sussex team at just 15. 

She is recognised as predominantly an opening right hand batter, writes SBT’s Sports Editor Laurence Elphick.

Georgia started batting at number seven and gradually worked her way up where she has represented both Loughborough Lightning and Southern Vipers in the Super League, along with both the Oval Invincibles and currently the Southern Brave in The Hundred. Oh, and she also captains the Sussex Women’s team, having made her first-class debut for the County in 2009.

In 2014, Adams captained Sussex for the first time, in a Women’s County Championship match against Yorkshire where she scored 106 from 111 balls, which was her first century. In 2015, Adams was captain for multiple Twenty20 Cup matches and was top scorer in Sussex’s opening two matches. In 2017 she became permanent Sussex captain, taking over from Georgia Elwiss whom she had covered for when Elwiss was away on England duty.

Georgia Adams is the daughter of Chris, the former England Test batter who captained Sussex to County Championship glory in the 2000s. Watching her father perform really influenced her passion and desire to make it as a professional. She told Sports Media LGBT+: “I spent my weekends down at Hove watching my dad and playing with the other kids and probably causing havoc in the nets. And also, probably getting in trouble with the stewards!”

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Georgia on several occasions myself and, after interviewing her in 2018 about her father’s influence on her, she was happy to tell me she’d normally go to him for advice as he was her biggest fan. Apparently though, Adams senior can’t relax when he’s watching his daughter. “During my first Super League game against Surrey Stars, he was sat in the box watching me and after I’d got Player of the Match I went to see him at the end of the game. I was told he’d been awful so I was worried he’d had too many beers, when in fact he’d been pacing up and down, couldn’t watch and was constantly asking what was happening…normally he’s such a logical man and very calm.”  

Born in Chesterfield, there have been many highlights during her cricketing journey and 10 years after making her bow for Sussex, she became the youngest player to reach the milestone of 100 appearances for the county.

In 2020, Adams was handed a regional contract and was later selected in the Southern Vipers squad for the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. In a match against Western Storm, Adams scored 154 not out and, at the time, it was the seventh highest women’s List A cricket score. That season, Adams scored 500 runs in seven innings in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, the most runs of any player in the tournament.

In 2021, Adams captained Southern Vipers to their second Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy title and was the side’s second-highest run-scorer and second-highest wicket-taker, with 233 runs and 12 wickets. In the same year, she also won The Hundred with the Oval Invincibles and, in April this year, she was signed by the Southern Brave for this season’s Hundred competition.

This year’s Hundred has seen some solid performances from Adams and clearly, she can confidently turn her hand to bowling right hand off break, having been regularly called upon to end opposition batting partnerships – most notably seeing her named Match Hero by Sky after her two wickets in the victory over the Oval Invincibles last month. 

With over 4,000 runs and 40-plus wickets in all formats of the women’s game, cricket is quite clearly in the family, but when Georgia’s not playing or coaching at Brighton Aldridge Community College, she enjoys a good dog walk on the beach and likes going to coffee shops and the gym. 

“I’m someone who needs to be out and about all the time…unless it’s raining!”

She used to play netball before cricket, but what about something that perhaps we don’t know? Georgia apparently has nine small tattoos – including a heartbeat line on her ribs, a wave on her foot and one of a compass on her ankle.

With women’s cricket increasing in popularity all the time, as crowds at The Hundred have shown, and four wins out of four for the Southern Brave at the time of writing, clearly Georgia Adams knows the way to the top.