Adam Hollioake named as new Kent head coach as former England captain agrees a 3-year contract in first head coach job.
Adam Hollioake, Surrey’s legendary former captain, has been named as Kent’s new head coach. He has agreed a three-year deal that will keep him at Canterbury at least until the end of the 2027 season.
He will succeed Matt Walker, who resigned in September after serving in the position for eight years. Kent was relegated from Division One of the County Championship and placed last in the South Group of the Vitality Blast.
Since retiring from playing in 2007, Hollioake, 53, has had little coaching experience. However, he established himself as an outstanding leader while he was at Surrey, where he led the team to seven titles, including three County Championships, between 1996 and 2003.
Between 1997 and 1998, he played 35 ODIs and four Test matches for England, where his brief stint as skipper led to a historic tournament win in Sharjah. He was seen to have led England into the 1999 World Cup, where he also participated, and his tactical sense is often recognised as being ahead of its time.
Tragic events ruined Hollioake’s career; after retiring from cricket, he lost interest in the sport after his brother Ben died in a vehicle accident in March 2002. He established a real estate business after relocating to Queensland in 2004 but was soon forced to file for bankruptcy. He then had a brief career as a cagefighter.
Hollioake, who has worked as a batting coach for Pakistan, Queensland, and the England Lions, will be taking on his first significant head coaching position. In 2024, he was an assistant coach at Surrey. Graham Thorpe, a former Surrey teammate, had lined him up to coach England for the 2021–22 Ashes, but he was disqualified after a close contact tested positive for COVID.
“I’m honoured to be appointed as the head coach of Kent,” Hollioake said. “It’s an amazing chance for me to work with a great squad of players and to be involved with a county with such a rich history of success.
“County Cricket is something that I hold extremely close to my heart, and this is an opportunity that I could not turn down.”
Kent’s director of cricket, Simon Cook, said: “Adam has shown throughout his playing and coaching career that he has outstanding leadership qualities and a winning mentality, something that was instrumental in our decision to move in a new direction following our robust and thorough search for a new men’s head coach.
“We welcome Adam into the Kent Cricket family and look forward to his leadership of our men’s side going into the new season.”