Home is where the Heart is, Ferisco Adams' story

There is a very popular saying that “charity begins at home”. A saying that Boland cricket has proven to live by as we have seen that despite all the outside quality signings they have made, they have not forgotten their own.

The return of Ferisco Adams to Boland emphasises this because it is where it all took off for him. He is one amongst a couple of former Boland boys who received contracts with the franchise for the new domestic restructure.

The 31-year-old allrounder made his first-class debut for Boland in 2012 against Gauteng and has been around for quite some time. He played for several teams in the franchise era such as Cape Cobras, Cape Town Blitz, Paarl Rocks and recently the Knights.

Adams tells an inspiring but rare story of how he never made any Boland team until after High School and how it all began with tennis-ball cricket for him even before he started playing cricket at school.

The general narrative with most South African cricketers is that one makes the provincial age-group sides then works their way up through the system. But that has never been the case for Adams who came from outside of the system to make his mark as one of the best white-ball all-rounders in the country.

“My cricket career actually started by playing soft-ball cricket before schools cricket. But the thing is I never made it while I played schools cricket. From Grade 5 to high school, I never made it as a cricketer. I only represented Boland after school and got my first colours for Boland Rural.”

This was the phase where his love for cricket was rekindled. Growing up in the streets of Robertson, Ferisco used to enjoy watching guys like Bret Lee and Shoaib Akhtar rattle batsmen and used to go out in the streets to try and emulate them when bowling.

His love for cricket is not something that came necessarily from his surroundings, having grown up in a place where cricket was not the focus. He learnt about the game by watching it on TV.

He witnessed his teammates receive Boland colours before him, but he never gave up on pursuing his dream, which was always to represent his province. Though his belief wavered briefly, he was convinced by a friend that he has to go back to club cricket. He did so and things changed again after two club matches where he picked up back-to-back 5-fors.

The same friend also convinced Boland Rural cricket to have a look at him.

“After that, I got into the Boland side and I just never looked back. I just went all the way.”

Now that he is an established domestic cricketer, another focus of Adams’ is giving back to the community that moulded him. He is looking to impact other people’s lives wherever he can. Landing a franchise contract has helped him show his unconditional support for those in need.

“A Franchise contract helped me financially, it helped me grow as a person because now I can give back to my family and friends and to people who need extra help from me.”

Apart from all of this, he acknowledges that the development and growth he’s enjoyed is as a result of playing at such a competitive level.

For Adams, the return to Boland means that he can inspire youngsters from his rural area and other rural areas. To see someone they relate to wearing a Boland jersey can inspire them. It also means that he can be there for them whenever they need someone with a bit of experience.

Boland is one of the teams of Division 1 that a lot of people will be keeping an eye on and most teams will be eager to play some cricket in Boland as we saw in the MSL. Adams will definitely play a massive role in the success of the team.

“To all the Boland supporters, to all the people around Paarl, please come back your boytjies at Boland Park when they play there. I know you have been there for us for many years, and your support is faithful to us.

“We love playing at Boland Park. You make it a nice playing ground when you guys are there so please come out and support again this upcoming season.”

This content was sponsored by Boland Cricket.