Let's hope it's a punt that comes off. A three year contract is a commitment for someone who has yet to prove themselves but hope he proves to be a big success.
Received an email from Kent advertising Membership for next season with a picture of Zak Crawley and some fans. The rumour doing the rounds (and it is only a rumour - I have no inside info on the subject) is that he is joining Surrey. So that's either disingenuous from Kent or the rumour is a load of rubbish. The other one being floated is that Compton is off to Essex.
Whatever their respective situations and notwithstanding Cook's statement about there being no major overhaul, I believe that a number of our players are out of contract (Compton, Crawley, Qadri, O'Riordan, Klaassen, Bhuiyan, Stewart and Quinn) and their future will need to be sorted soon be that by the County or the individuals themselves. Benjamin has come in to replace one of them rather than in addition because I can't believe that we have the finances to increase the size of the squad.
Received an email from Kent advertising Membership for next season with a picture of Zak Crawley and some fans. The rumour doing the rounds (and it is only a rumour - I have no inside info on the subject) is that he is joining Surrey. So that's either disingenuous from Kent or the rumour is a load of rubbish. The other one being floated is that Compton is off to Essex.
Whatever their respective situations and notwithstanding Cook's statement about there being no major overhaul, I believe that a number of our players are out of contract (Compton, Crawley, Qadri, O'Riordan, Klaassen, Bhuiyan, Stewart and Quinn) and their future will need to be sorted soon be that by the County or the individuals themselves. Benjamin has come in to replace one of them rather than in addition because I can't believe that we have the finances to increase the size of the squad.
And there it is - Crawley signs a contract extension. So much for rumours!
Received an email from Kent advertising Membership for next season with a picture of Zak Crawley and some fans. The rumour doing the rounds (and it is only a rumour - I have no inside info on the subject) is that he is joining Surrey. So that's either disingenuous from Kent or the rumour is a load of rubbish. The other one being floated is that Compton is off to Essex.
Whatever their respective situations and notwithstanding Cook's statement about there being no major overhaul, I believe that a number of our players are out of contract (Compton, Crawley, Qadri, O'Riordan, Klaassen, Bhuiyan, Stewart and Quinn) and their future will need to be sorted soon be that by the County or the individuals themselves. Benjamin has come in to replace one of them rather than in addition because I can't believe that we have the finances to increase the size of the squad.
And there it is - Crawley signs a contract extension. So much for rumours!
Don't think he was ever likely to go elsewhere. Whenever available he can play however he wants for us, with Surrey there's always going to be more pressure at the moment. Good news anyway
Don't think he was ever likely to go elsewhere. Whenever available he can play however he wants for us, with Surrey there's always going to be more pressure at the moment. Good news anyway
Another thing to consider is money. Leaving Kent to play for Surrey would probably appeal to some players for the extra £££. But Zak Crawley 's family is absolutely minted so money would not be a motivation to move.
Don't think he was ever likely to go elsewhere. Whenever available he can play however he wants for us, with Surrey there's always going to be more pressure at the moment. Good news anyway
Even more pressure if he doesn't score runs in Div 2. Not from England but from Kent supporters and himself in which case he will probably take the least line of resistance and only play when he feels he really has to.
Don't think he was ever likely to go elsewhere. Whenever available he can play however he wants for us, with Surrey there's always going to be more pressure at the moment. Good news anyway
Another thing to consider is money. Leaving Kent to play for Surrey would probably appeal to some players for the extra £££. But Zak Crawley 's family is absolutely minted so money would not be a motivation to move.
He's on a central contract anyway, so a county contract would be relatively insignificant to him financially.
Don't think he was ever likely to go elsewhere. Whenever available he can play however he wants for us, with Surrey there's always going to be more pressure at the moment. Good news anyway
Even more pressure if he doesn't score runs in Div 2. Not from England but from Kent supporters and himself in which case he will probably take the least line of resistance and only play when he feels he really has to.
No selection pressure really though so he has time to get into form without Sibley/Burns breathing down his neck
Don't think he was ever likely to go elsewhere. Whenever available he can play however he wants for us, with Surrey there's always going to be more pressure at the moment. Good news anyway
Another thing to consider is money. Leaving Kent to play for Surrey would probably appeal to some players for the extra £££. But Zak Crawley 's family is absolutely minted so money would not be a motivation to move.
That is certainly true but as he's centrally contracted he has a massive underpin (and that might be all of the cake too). That might change should he lose his England place in the next year or so in which case he will probably move to pastures new as I'm sure he'd want to rely on his own career for that rather than asking his dad, Terry, for help in that regard. Kent certainly wouldn't be paying at that time what he might command from one of the big counties.
Don't think he was ever likely to go elsewhere. Whenever available he can play however he wants for us, with Surrey there's always going to be more pressure at the moment. Good news anyway
Even more pressure if he doesn't score runs in Div 2. Not from England but from Kent supporters and himself in which case he will probably take the least line of resistance and only play when he feels he really has to.
No selection pressure really though so he has time to get into form without Sibley/Burns breathing down his neck
But there isn't "selection pressure". England really don't care about his form (one score of 238 and 138 runs in total in his other 9 innings). What happens is that the county releases a statement saying the "he is back with England working on his game ahead of the series against....." (as they did this season when, despite being out of form, he didn't play for us when others did for their respective counties). That is how central contracts work as they offer financial certainty and protection from pressure from the county.
I also think that signing for someone like Surrey would benefit him in one other way - playing on the road that is The Oval would help him in both red and white ball (there's no way Burns opens ahead of him in The Blast).
As Matt Walker is leaving get Stevo in as player coach. He can open the bowling on damp cloudy days in April and probably score more runs than most of our batsmen too even at 48 or whatever he is now.
It's a signing or re-signing a day at the moment, presumably with a view to keep Kent in the minds of people thinking about purchasing season tickets in advance of the season. Today it's been announced that Jaydn Denly has signed a new contract to the end of 2026
He's unlikely to be available for Kent for more than a few games but I don't know how to feel about him staying with Kent I'm suspicious of such an apparent lack of ambition, he can't have been short of offers
Below is what I believe is the length of contract afforded to our playing staff. Cook has stated that changes will be "minimal" due to so many players being under contract but, what is apparent is that we do seem to have a number out of contract now with the majority of the squad having just one season left. A few of those out of contract might, of course, have already been offered a new contract but are seeing what might be offered to them elsewhere. I doubt that we've ever ended a season (bearing in mind Zak and Jaydn just signed extensions plus the signing of Chris Benjamin) with only two players having more than one year left on their contract.
Of course, my information might be totally wrong as it is based on the most recent announcements from the Club and I might have missed something or they simply haven't informed us of any extensions:
Kent are advertising for a new Cricket operations executive with a salary of £22-£23k which is crazy. The Job Description includes overseeing the whole cricket operations budget, purchasing equipment, being the match manager, liaising with umpires & officials, handling registration forms for new signings, overseeing the EPP and tonnes more. If they're only willing to pay £23k for that then the club is in some serious trouble.
He's unlikely to be available for Kent for more than a few games but I don't know how to feel about him staying with Kent I'm suspicious of such an apparent lack of ambition, he can't have been short of offers
What do those offers mean though? He is centrally contracted so all of his income, apart from franchise cricket, comes from the ECB. This is the very reason why the likes of Root and Pope find it easy to say that they would rather play in a Pro-Am golf tournament than for their respective counties. They will play for them when it is mutually convenient to do so i.e. when they feel they need a net in the middle and it will serve their purpose to play. The other aspect is that he walks into the Kent side whether that is white or red ball and he is certain to do so if he moves to, say, Surrey i.e. they might want to keep the Burns/Sibley opening partnership (both did better in the CC than Crawley this season) and also decide that they will keep a winning Blast side than disrupt it for a returning international such as Crawley.
Crawley wants to get into the England white ball set up so it doesn't matter whether he plays for us or anyone else in that respect. His ultimate ambition has to be to carry on playing for England and to secure further central contracts probably worth anything up to £700K per annum. If he loses that central contract then he will probably look elsewhere hence his commitment to a one year only contract with us which also coincides with the end of his current ECB contract. We'll probably find out next month whether that is extended beyond 2025 by the ECB.
That was always on the cards given Hamid couldn't get a sniff and Arafat has been playing for other 2s teams in recent months. Sad that things haven't worked out for them but wish them well.
Qadri is a strange one, as he was a really promising youngster when he joined us, who never really fulfilled that promise. Maybe he'll return to Derbyshire.
Comments
Doesn't take much to cheer me up at this moment in time.
Whatever their respective situations and notwithstanding Cook's statement about there being no major overhaul, I believe that a number of our players are out of contract (Compton, Crawley, Qadri, O'Riordan, Klaassen, Bhuiyan, Stewart and Quinn) and their future will need to be sorted soon be that by the County or the individuals themselves. Benjamin has come in to replace one of them rather than in addition because I can't believe that we have the finances to increase the size of the squad.
It's not as if his Blast record is that impressive either.
Leaving Kent to play for Surrey would probably appeal to some players for the extra £££.
But Zak Crawley 's family is absolutely minted so money would not be a motivation to move.
I also think that signing for someone like Surrey would benefit him in one other way - playing on the road that is The Oval would help him in both red and white ball (there's no way Burns opens ahead of him in The Blast).
I'm suspicious of such an apparent lack of ambition, he can't have been short of offers
Of course, my information might be totally wrong as it is based on the most recent announcements from the Club and I might have missed something or they simply haven't informed us of any extensions:
Arafat Bhuiyan 2024 Released
Ben Compton 2024
Nathan Gilchrist 2024
Fred Klaassen 2024
Marcus O'Riordan 2024 ???
Hamid Qadri 2024 Released
Matt Quinn 2024
Grant Stewart 2024
Wes Agar 2025 (overseas)
Daniel Bell-Drummond 2025
Sam Billings 2025 (white ball)
Michael Cohen 2025
Zak Crawley 2025
Joe Denly 2025
Joey Evison 2025
Harry Finch 2025
George Garrett 2025
Tawanda Muyeye 2025
Jas Singh 2025
Ekansh Singh 2025 ???
Jaydn Denly 2026
Jack Leaning 2026
Matt Parkinson 2026
Chris Benjamin 2027
Crawley wants to get into the England white ball set up so it doesn't matter whether he plays for us or anyone else in that respect. His ultimate ambition has to be to carry on playing for England and to secure further central contracts probably worth anything up to £700K per annum. If he loses that central contract then he will probably look elsewhere hence his commitment to a one year only contract with us which also coincides with the end of his current ECB contract. We'll probably find out next month whether that is extended beyond 2025 by the ECB.
https://www.kentcricket.co.uk/news/qadri-arafat-leave-kent-at-conclusion-of-2024-season/