George Ross Adair (born

Holywood, County Down Holywood ( ; ) is a town in the metropolitan area of Belfast in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is a Holywood, County Down (civil parish), civil parish and townland of lying on the shore of Belfast Lough, between Belfast and Bangor, County ...

, 21 April 1994) is an Irish

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er and former

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player. He plays for the Northern Knights in domestic cricket. His younger brother,

Mark Adair Mark Richard Adair (born 27 March 1996) is an Irish international cricketer from Northern Ireland, currently playing for Northern Knights (cricket team), Northern Knights in domestic cricket. He has played county cricket in England for Warwick ...

, is also a cricketer, who has played for

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

in all formats.

Cricket career

He made his

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

debut for the Northern Knights in the 2020 Inter-Provincial Trophy on 20 August 2020. He made his

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

debut on 30 June 2021, for Northern Knights in the

2021 Inter-Provincial Cup The 2021 Inter-Provincial Cup was the ninth edition of the Inter-Provincial Cup, a List A cricket competition that took place in Ireland during 2021. It was the fifth edition of the competition to be played with List A status. The number of team ...

. In December 2022, he earned his maiden call-up to the

Ireland cricket team The Ireland men's cricket team represents All-Ireland in international cricket. The Irish Cricket Union, operating under the brand Cricket Ireland, is the sport's governing body in Ireland, and they organise the international team. The team ha ...

for their T20I series against Zimbabwe. He made his

Twenty20 International Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...

(T20I) debut for Ireland, on 12 January 2023 in the first T20I match. In May 2024, he was named in Ireland’s squad for the

2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup The 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the ninth edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, co-hosted by Cricket West Indies and USA Cricket from 1 to 29 June 2024. It was the first major ICC tournament to include matches played in the United ...

tournament. Adair would hit his maiden T20I

century A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. ...

on 29 September 2024 against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in the 2nd T20I of their series in

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

. He would finish on exactly 100 (58) and hit nine 6s along the way He was just the third Irish man to achieve the feat and fifth Irish cricketer overall alongside Kevin O'Brien,

Paul Stirling Paul Robert Stirling (born 3 September 1990) is an Irish cricketer. Stirling is the opening batsman for the Ireland cricket team and an occasional right-arm, off-break bowler. He is one of the top 10 run scorers in T20 internationals. He was o ...

, Amy Hunter and Gaby Lewis.

Rugby career

Adair played schools rugby for

Sullivan Upper School Sullivan Upper School is a mixed non- denominational voluntary grammar school in Holywood, Northern Ireland, and has approximately 1,100 enrolled pupils. The school motto is ', Irish for "with the gentle hand foremost". History Sullivan Lo ...

, impressing in the

Ulster Schools' Cup The Ulster Schools' Challenge Cup is an annual competition involving schools affiliated to the Ulster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union. The Schools' Cup has the distinction of being the world's second-oldest rugby competition, having be ...

in 2011. He played for the Ulster Ravens in the

British and Irish Cup The British and Irish Cup was an annual rugby union competition for second tier, semi-professional clubs and the reserves or developing teams from professional clubs from Great Britain and Ireland. It took place for the first time in the 2009� ...

, and made one senior appearance for

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

in the

Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

, scoring a try against

Dragons A dragon is a magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depict ...

in 2015. He played for

Jersey Reds Jersey Reds was a rugby union club based in Jersey, Channel Islands. On 28th September 2023, the club ceased trading and shortly thereafter went into liquidation following the withdrawal of financial support from a key investor. Until seaso ...

in the

RFU Championship The RFU Championship is an English rugby union competition comprising twelve clubs. It is the second level of men's English rugby and is played by both professional and semi-professional players. The competition has existed since 1987, when Eng ...

for two and a half years, making more than 40 appearances before a degenerative hip condition ended his professional career. Following two operations, he returned to rugby at an amateur level with

Ballynahinch RFC Ballynahinch Rugby Club is an Irish rugby union club based in the County Down town of Ballynahinch. Founded in 1954, the club is affiliated to the Ulster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union. The first team plays Senior rugby union in the ...

, with whom he won the Ulster Senior League in 2019, and was named Club Player of the Year in the Ulster Rugby awards.Darren Fullerton
"2019 Ulster Rugby Awards: Retiring captain Rory Best is named Heineken Personality of the Year"
Belfast Live, 9 May 2019

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Adair, Ross 1994 births Living people Irish cricketers Cricketers from County Down Northern Knights cricketers Ireland Twenty20 International cricketers Irish rugby union players Rugby union centres Rugby union wings Rugby union players from County Down Ulster Rugby players Jersey Reds players People educated at Sullivan Upper School