Adrian Rollins (born 8 February 1972) is an English

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er who played for

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the no ...

from 1993 to 1999 and for

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

from 2000 to 2002. He was a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, th ...

and a right-arm medium-pace bowler. An imposing presence, measuring 6 ft 5 in and weighing around sixteen stone, Rollins made his debut for Derbyshire as an emergency

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. T ...

in the absence of teammates Bernie Maher and

Karl Krikken Karl Matthew Krikken (born 9 April 1969) is a former English cricketer who played for Derbyshire County Cricket Club, primarily as a wicket-keeper, between 1987 and 2003. Krikken was born in Farnworth, Lancashire, the son of Brian Krikken, a ...

, making him possibly the tallest wicket-keeper in first-class cricket history. Rollins became the 500th first-class cricketer for the Derbyshire team, as well as the 100th to make a first-class century, following his milestone innings with a hugely impressive innings of 200 in nine hours, the single longest innings in Derbyshire's history. After the threat of resignation from captain

Dominic Cork Dominic is a name common among Roman Catholics and other Latin-Romans as a male given name. Originally from the late Roman-Italic name "Dominicus", its translation means "Lordly", "Belonging to God" or "of the Master". Variations include: Domini ...

, it was thought that Rollins was to be made the captain by the board, though this was not to come to fruition, and he was to move to Northamptonshire at the end of 1999. Though he did not have the greatest of starts to his Northamptonshire career, he was still picking up good scores from time to time (most notably missing out on a 'double' at Lord's, where he scored 100 in the first innings and 96 in the second). After spending the 2001 season in Division One, they were to find themselves back down and out again a year later, and, in 2002, with his contract over and a wrist injury caused taking a diving catch at short leg, Northamptonshire did not offer Rollins new terms and he announced his retirement in January 2003. Since retiring from first-class cricket, Rollins has worked in education in Luton, Northampton, London and Derby. He is currently teaching Mathematics in Derby, where he played the majority of his cricket career. Rollins has two brothers who have both played cricket, Gary Rollins and Robert Rollins.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rollins, Adrian 1972 births Living people English cricketers Derbyshire cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers Schoolteachers from Essex