Cape Town – Paul Adams stepped down as the head coach of the Cape Cobras on Friday and will fulfil a new role at the franchise following an ongoing saga around player unhappiness and poor results.
Former Proteas spinner Adams, who was in charge of the Cobras for five seasons, will now begin a new post as the Western Cape Cricket high performance manager and coach from January 1.
This will see him identifying and mentoring future Cobras players, and working with his successor at the franchise and the coaches at Western Province, Boland and South Western Districts in what can be viewed as a director of cricket.
While Cobras chief executive Nabeal Dien said in a statement on Friday that the high-performance plans had been several years in the making, he added that the terrible first-half of the season for the franchise, as well as the “issues in the franchise team”, led to the organisation and Adams agreeing that he should be moved into a different role.
“Paul and ourselves have decided that now is the time to action these plans, and we feel he is ideally equipped for this job,” Dien said. “Paul still has a great deal to offer South African cricket and we look forward to his continued contribution to the success of Western Cape Cricket.”
A group of Cobras players lodged a grievance with the top management about their unhappiness with Adams’ management style and coaching ability just before the start of the season.
The process led to an independent review conducted by Paddy Upton, a former member of Gary Kirsten’s Proteas management team. Upton provided three recommendations to the Cobras board, who opted to continue with Adams as the head coach, but stated that they would attempt to solve any issues between the players and the coach.
The players were not satisfied with that decision, and decided to approach the CCMA for mediation. But a resolution could not be found, and both parties continued with their work. During that period, though, new convenor of selectors Alan Dawson quit after just a few months in the position as he felt “it is the right decision in terms of the situation and the circumstances at present. I feel at this stage as a convenor, I cannot make any difference to the performance of the team”.
The Cobras, though, had a disastrous time of it in the four-day Sunfoil Series, losing three and drawing two games to be last on the log after the first half of the season.
They also battled for consistency in the T20 Challenge, eventually just missing out on a playoff spot by a point when they lost their final league game to the Lions in Paarl. That is perhaps what sealed Adams’ fate more than anything else.
Cobras chairman Beresford Williams said in a statement: “The youngest South African Test player with 21 years of top cricket experience, the highest coaching qualification of level 4 available in South Africa and five trophies to his name, he is a national cricket treasure.”
Adams added: “Helping the team to succeed in ways which led to a number of trophies and getting players going up to the Proteas was a very satisfying part of my five season journey as Cobras coach.
“Recruiting world stars who delivered like Sunil Narine and Kieron Pollard and working with senior players was also rewarding.
“Here I especially want to thank the dedicated long-standing captain Justin Ontong and Charl Langeveldt, whose knowledge and feel for the game proved valuable at key moments. I am very much looking forward to my new role.”
A successor to Adams has not yet been appointed, but Independent Media understands that current Cobras assistant Ashwell Prince could be utilised in an interim role, with WP coach Faiek Davids possibly as Prince’s assistant until the end of the season.
The Cobras’ next match is a Sunfoil Series game against the Lions in Paarl on January 5.