I’m a former England cricket star who turned to cage fighting after losing my brother, best mate and all my money
ADAM HOLLIOAKE admits he has a reputation for being “one of the hardest men in the game and put people on edge”.
But the ex-England all-rounder, now 53 and days into his new job as Kent County Cricket Club coach, has good reason for that.
After all, he’s been through a hell of a lot in an emotional roller-coaster of a life.
In 2002, Adam tragically lost little brother, Ben, in a car accident when aged just 24 and still a key figure in England’s ODI team.
In the coming years, he’d go on to lose his best mate, a hoard of old Surrey team-mates… as well as going bankrupt after a failed investment.
Dad-of-three Hollioake turned to boxing and cage fighting to make ends meet.
The steely, broad-shouldered figure who “just has an aura”, according to Kent captain Daniel Bell-Drummond, won three of his four boxing matches, as well as drawing his one and only professional MMA bout against Joel Millar.
Now, the cricket icon, nicknamed ‘Smokes’, is back to his first sport, having previously worked with England, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Queensland, as well as Andrew Flintoff‘s England Lions outfit.
Hollioake has opened up on his life in an emotional interview, telling The Telegraph: “In the space of 15 years, I lost my best mate [Surrey wicketkeeper Graham Kersey] in a car accident, I lost my brother in a car accident, and I lost all my money in a failed property development venture.
“So then I was fighting in a cage to earn money.
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“I was like: ‘God, what else are you gonna give me? Just leave my children alone.
“I can deal with anything else because I’ve had to deal with some big things early in life, so I don’t see what can hurt me now, apart from, as I say, leave my kids alone.”
He continued: “I’m not scared of dying… I’ve seen it, lost enough people myself to know it’s going to come to all of us.
“I lost Graham Thorpe last year, lost eight of the team I played with over the years, guys like Joey Benjamin, Danny Kelleher from Kent, who was my flatmate…
“I lost my brother, Tom Maynard, Graham Kersey, and Nick Peters, who was my best mate at Surrey.”
Hollioake – who won nine trophies as Surrey captain – has revealed cricket has a lot in common with fighting and believes his background will work in his favour as a coach.
He told The Times: “When I went into fighting everybody said, ‘What’s cricket and fighting got in common?’
“And it turns out there’s a lot of things, like discipline, controlling your arousal levels, preparing and getting yourself into the right shape for an event.
“It just emphasised to me that there is a process to go through to have success back here in cricket, which is where I began.”
Hollioake has now decided to return to the sport with his kids now in their 20s, freeing him up to “do some stuff for myself”.
He said: “I’ve always felt like my destiny is to be a head coach but my first priority over the last decade has been bringing my children up.
“The most important thing in life was to be a dad and give them the best start in life but now I’ve got to the point where, thankfully, they’ve left.
“Now it’s my opportunity to bring on some of these guys and hopefully turn them into better players and better men. And do some stuff for myself.
“The way I’ve lived my life, I’ve kind of… what’s the right word… freestyled and just accepted whatever’s come my way.
“I’ve just seen where life’s taken me and in this instance it has brought me down here [to Kent]. I don’t know why, because the crowd always hated me down here.
“So I’m not sure why God’s sending me down this way, but he’s done it.”