On the front foot: Surrey and England cricketer Adam Hollioake made more than £1million a year in the late 1990s
Cricketer and professional fighter Adam Hollioake never walks past a homeless person without giving them some money.
The 51-year-old ex-England captain, who lost £21 million when his property development company went under in 2009, tells Donna Ferguson he believes the wealth of the super-rich should be redistributed to the poor.
After going bankrupt and losing everything, he rents a home on the Gold Coast of Australia.
What did your parents teach you about money?
My dad was a saver who taught me to invest for the future. My mum was a spender who taught me to live in the present.
I was born in Australia and moved to Surrey when I was 12 because my dad, an engineer, got a job here. Mum was a nurse.
At times, money was tight and at others, we were comfortable. Education was really important to my parents.
They begged and borrowed every dollar they could to put me, my brother [the cricketer Ben Hollioake, killed in a car crash aged 24 in 2002] and my sister through private schools. I went to St George’s College in Weybridge.
What was the best year of your financial life?
It was 1997, the year my brother and I first played for England. We went from making decent money, £50,000 a year, to making a ridiculous amount of money – comfortably more than £1million each.
Only a small part was money from cricket. People thought we were good looking so we did a lot of modelling together and became brand ambassadors. We were the exciting new faces of cricket.
Of course, nowadays, professional cricketers can earn several million pounds a year. The money’s gone through the roof but back then a good cricketer made £100,000 a year.
What do you think of how much cricketers earn now?
It’s great – they earn it. They’re under so much scrutiny now with social media. I didn’t have to put up with any of that. I was able to be myself and I certainly wasn’t on my best behaviour all the time.
I would have been in a lot of trouble these days if I behaved the way I used to when I played cricket in my 20s, partying, womanising and enjoying myself.
Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?
Yes. After I retired from cricket, I started a very successful property development company. But we got caught up in the global financial crash between 2007 and 2009 and I went bankrupt. It’s hard to put a figure on how much, but it was around 40 million Australian dollars (£21million).
I was naive when it came to structuring the company and protecting my personal wealth so I lost everything, including my home and the money in my bank account – everything except the clothes on my back. I was left with just enough money to rent a place to live, so that my family and I weren’t left homeless.
I had no formal qualifications and no experience in the workforce. Since I left school after A-levels I had only ever been a cricketer and an entrepreneur. I didn’t have the money to start up anything entrepreneurial.
I’ve always been a relaxed person but that was a really hard time for me.
How did you turn your fortunes around?
I went into survival mode. I wasn’t the world’s greatest cricket player but my mental toughness was probably the strongest facet of my game, so I drew on that to remain calm.
I’m a fighter – literally. I used to fight and wrestle during my cricket career in the off-season. I’d always used my body as a way of creating money and so when a mate of mine suggested I fight professionally, I tried it. I won the fight and got invited to do cage fighting in mixed martial arts (MMA). I ended up fighting professionally for five years and that got me out of that difficult financial period.
I turned 40, about 18 months after I went bankrupt, and could access the pension that, thankfully, I’d saved into when I was playing cricket. I took 25 per cent out as a lump sum and drew an income from the remainder. Pensions are excluded from a bankrupt’s estate.
Have you ever been paid silly money?
Yes, when I was playing cricket in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I’d be asked to make a personal appearance or take part in a photoshoot. But I valued my time way more than money so if I didn’t want to do it, I’d put a ridiculous price on it like £20,000 for an hour. Most of the time the answer was no, but a few times they agreed.
The most expensive thing you bought for fun?
A 50ft Sea Ray boat for nearly one million Australian dollars in 2007. They say the best two days of a boat owner’s life are the day you buy the boat and the day you sell it. I didn’t sell mine – my creditors took it.
What is your biggest money mistake?
Not understanding how to protect my own money when I ran my property development company. I’d signed personal guarantees and didn’t know what I was doing. It was a mistake that cost me millions.
On the ropes: Adam ended up fighting professionally for five years and that got him out of a difficult financial period
Do you own any property?
No. I rent a three-bedroom house on the Gold Coast in Australia two minutes from the beach. It’s elevated so it overlooks all of Surfers’ Paradise.
What is the best freebie you ever got?
A free hair transplant from The Wimpole Clinic in Harley Street, in London. After my hair started receding, I shaved it off. When the clinic approached me, I said I was absolutely not interested. I’m a man’s man and I wasn’t sold on the idea. Eventually, they told me they were so confident I would like it, they would do the treatment for free.
I agreed to go in for two or three hours and they removed some hair from the back of my head where it was very dense and planted it at the front. I immediately looked ten years younger – it was amazing. Now I have a beautiful head of hair, I’ll never have to have it redone and will never go bald.
I know many men worry about their hair receding and it causes a lot of anxiety. And most people assume it’s a taboo topic but transplants can really help men with their self-esteem.
Has it helped you with any mental health issues?
I’m probably the last person to suffer from a confidence issue. If anything, my problem is keeping myself in check.
But having had a transplant, I do walk a bit taller.
If you were Chancellor, what would you do?
I have a rule that I never walk past a homeless person without giving them money.
So I would try to get rid of homelessness and redistribute wealth. I don’t know how you’d do that – there’s a reason I’m not the Chancellor.
Do you donate money to charity?
Yes, I donate quite a lot. I didn’t used to when I was young. But now I always say: be humble or life will cast humbleness upon you. I believe one of the reasons I lost my brother and money is because I wasn’t humble.
I donate regularly to Paradise Kids, an Australian charity for kids with terminal illness.
I’ve got my own charity here in England called the Ben Hollioake Fund, for children with terminal illness, and I support an orphanage in Jakarta in Indonesia, which is where my grandfather was from.
What is your number one financial priority?
Making sure my three kids are financially secure. My goal is that when I die, I leave them in a position where they are not struggling or worried about money.
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