Chris Adams has had to fend off some pretty hostile deliveries as a Sussex and England batsman.

Ask him who really sent him reeling, though, and the name Charles Colvile might be the surprising response.

It was the Sky Sports presenter who went for the jugular when Adams returned home from England's sorry tour to South Africa in 2000.

Adams, who is establishing a successful sideline as co-presenter and commentator on Sky Sports and BBC Radio Five Live, admits that was the one time he was lost for words.

These days, his delivery style is honest and polished as listeners might appreciate when they hear him co-present his hour-long cricket show on Five Live tonight.

It was not always that way, though, as Adams remembers.

He said: "Charles hit me with a sledgehammer of a question straight up, live on television.

"He said: 'It seems your England career is over. How do you feel?'

"I'd come back from the tour still wondering, then, boom, I got that question.

"I came out with some complete and utter waffle.

"As soon as we went off air he said 'I'm really sorry, I had to ask the question.'

"That's what Charles is good at. He's good at seeing that opportunity and going straight in there.

"He's a cricket enthusiast, he loves the game and that comes across in the way he commentates and presents.

"You just wish there were more like him. David Lloyd is brilliant. He's a pure fanatic about the game.

"With other commentators it's like they are being paid to be controversial and it doesn't sit well with me.

"Bob Willis has done it for years. He will always focus on the negative and not on the positive. I'm not saying that's wrong but it gets a bit tiring after a while.

"I watched a show just prior to my selection for the England tour and they picked their squad "Bob Willis was saying 'Adams has got to get picked, his time has come, he has played so well.'

"I was leading run scorer going into the first Test in Johannesburg. It was in really difficult conditions, I walked out at 2-4 and I got 17.

"His commentary after my first innings in Test cricket was that he felt I didn't have the technique. That's after one innings. Two weeks earlier he said my time had come.

"That was beyond me."

Being a county captain helped get Adams his media chance but straight talking has kept him on air.

So too has some off-field training he received at Hove.

He said: "When I came to the club Tony Pigott had just done a management course with Peter Moores.

One part was dealing with media. They insisted I did the course when I joined.

"I enjoyed it and I think the most enjoyable module was the media part.

"You call it as you see it. I would much rather have people around me who say what they think than people who go away and bear grudges.

"I'm not going to pull apart somebody's game because they just nicked a ball outside off stump. There are plenty of those around on telly, people who have forgotten what it's like to play the game.

"Give some credit. It's not always solely a mistake when you get out."

The scheduling of his radio appearances has not been kind to Adams.

Last Thursday he was asked to talk Twenty20 with Sussex's tormentors Adam Hollioake and Dmitri Mascarenhas, then to describe his part in the totesport League tie with Nottinghamshire which saw the skipper get out with victory in sight.

Adams told listeners he took the blame for failing to beat Notts and he still stands by that.

He said: "I got 93 very good runs and I got us from a seemingly lost situation to a seemingly unassailable position. Then I got out with six runs needed.

"People will say you still should not lose but I had the game in complete control and I got out.

"I went in the dressing room afterwards and everybody was cursing themselves.

"I said 'There's only person who should be cursing and that's me'.

"Because I'm prepared to stick to my principles and say what I believe I will always be someone who people would love to have a shot at."

Adams is keen to do his bit for cricket in the public eye. His Five Live brief involves doing his own research and coming up with questions rather than reading a script prepared by the BBC.

It is tempting to draw comparisons with going into bat and going into a studio but Adams insists they are very different disciplines.

"I would not say at this stage that it's where my future lies but I would certainly like to explore that avenue."

And maybe deliver a bouncer of his own. Colvile style.