The start of the 2025 County Cricket Championship is now less than two weeks away and KSN begins our build up to April 4th with new coach Adam Hollioake excited about the season ahead.

We caught up with the new coach at the recent media day, “I have only been here for a few weeks now, but have been made to feel very welcome and loving being here,” the new coach told us. 

“I remember winning a lot of games down here! Actually, we had some great games here – the Kent side in my era was very strong with players like Matthew Fleming, Mark Ealham, Martin Mccague, Dean Headley, Min Patel, Graham Cowdrey – they were a good side, and we had some good battles with Kent… and the crowd too!” Hollioake added smiling.

“In my first chat with the team as a whole, and one of the things that I urged them to do was to study the history of Kent and make themselves ofay with the great players of the past and try to aspire to be one of the great sides in Kent’s history – that is surely their goal and be like the legacy you see today in the dining room with pictures and paintings of great Kent Players. Their goals should be to be one of those in the future!” 

“It was the tree that attracted me here, but they took it down!” Hollioake joked when asked why Kent?

“I have always tended to go with the flow and didn’t really have any long-term plans seeing where life takes me and then try to take on challenges.”

“This job just came up at the right time and I felt that my children are at an age now where they are self-sufficient and looking after themselves meaning that I could get back into County Cricket – which I love – and to be a head coach.”

“I always knew I would be at some stage, I just didn’t know where and when. This opportunity arose and was the perfect stall, with the only hesitation was the Kent supporters who “hated” me in the past, so I think I have quite a bit of work to do to win them over, but otherwise coming here was a free hit as far as I was concerned!” 

“All the players will start with a blank sheet regardless of being the same side as last year or not because I haven’t been the coach of Kent before – I am coming in with a fresh set of eyes and no clouded vision and I will just take it for what it is and go out there and try and do the best that we can and see what comes about!” 

“I will I’m sure have a say in which players come into the Club – it’s generally the way that it works,” Hollioake told us when asked about overseas and new signings.

“The signing of players and or overseas players, the Head Coach will always have a big say in that as it’s usually a collaboration of Head Coach, Captain, senior players, Director of Cricket and the finance department!”

“It’s something of a group discussion, but usually the Captain and Head Coach will start with who they want and then it’s a case of if the finances allow that.” 

“We have some good players already here – an England opener (Zak Crawley), a white ball captain who’s being touted as maybe England’s next white ball skipper (Sam Billings), and then there are players like Tawanda (Muyeye) who had a good Big Bash, Daniel (Bell-Drummond) the Captain who is also very talented, so batting wise we do have some huge talent.” 

“With the ball there were a lot of injuries last year and when we get those people fit and back bowling, we have a good leg spinner in Matt Parkinson so there is stuff to be optimistic about!” 

Earlier in the media day, Bell-Drummond had stated that in his opinion Hollioake was one of the best skippers that England have ever had – the coach’s reaction; “I was a bit disappointed that he only said one of the greatest”, he said laughing.

“That was a huge accolade and the fact that the guys even know who I am is surprising as it’s been at least twenty years since I captained anywhere, and half these guys were not even born then! For Deebs to say that, either someone has told him or he’s had the history books out.” 

“Look, he’s still a young captain and I think some will look at me to maybe mentor him – captaincy is I believe very learnable; there are some elements of leadership that are natural, and I think Deebs has got it.”

“He’s a very calm guy, well respected by the team – he has some natural leadership qualities, and the rest of it is very learnable! Tactically it is learnable; controlling your emotions is something he is very good at, but that’s all something that I developed as a captain better as I went on, and I really don’t think that Deebs will be any different!” 

“Respect shouldn’t be taken for granted. I think that respect must be earned every day by showing good character and being consistent.”

“If I come in here and don’t show good character and uphold decent principles, I would not expect to receive respect.”

“It’s something that comes with the charter – I have seen a lot of good coaches who don’t have the respect of their team, but for me it’s a loyalty thing and understanding you have too.”

“It’s no different to being a parent – I don’t expect my kids to respect me just because I’m Dad, I have to earn that respect by the choices that I make and the strength of my character, and coaching is no different at all!” 

“Supporters here are smart people,” the coach said. “They get a feeling whether you are authentic or not. I am not coming into this job saying that we are going to win the Second Division and go through the First Division next year.”

“I am not going to make statements on results – all that I can say is that I will promise people that my team will play hard and play to the best of our ability.”

“I can’t wait for the season to start – it’s why I took the job. I love competing, I will love watching us compete as I’m too old to do it myself now. I have the opportunity to lead these guys and with the talent I have already seen, I am really excited!”