Time for a new thread and how better than with an article from the CEO. It's the hope that kills but here's to 2025 being our year in all formats of the game:
Kent players were the match winners for the Melbourne Stars today in the Big Bash - Sam Billings scored 72 off 39 and Wes Agar bowled superbly at the death and returned figures of 4-0-25-3 with all three wickets caught behind by Billings who took four catches in total. Hopefully bodes well for the Blast.
Kent players were the match winners for the Melbourne Stars today in the Big Bash - Sam Billings scored 72 off 39 and Wes Agar bowled superbly at the death and returned figures of 4-0-25-3 with all three wickets caught behind by Billings who took four catches in total. Hopefully bodes well for the Blast.
It will be good to have Agar for the Blast as well. Of course the ECB have ruined the scheduling, so that the overseas players will all be long gone by the time the knockout games start...
Kent players were the match winners for the Melbourne Stars today in the Big Bash - Sam Billings scored 72 off 39 and Wes Agar bowled superbly at the death and returned figures of 4-0-25-3 with all three wickets caught behind by Billings who took four catches in total. Hopefully bodes well for the Blast.
It will be good to have Agar for the Blast as well. Of course the ECB have ruined the scheduling, so that the overseas players will all be long gone by the time the knockout games start...
No need for us to worry about that, so will we ...
Kent players were the match winners for the Melbourne Stars today in the Big Bash - Sam Billings scored 72 off 39 and Wes Agar bowled superbly at the death and returned figures of 4-0-25-3 with all three wickets caught behind by Billings who took four catches in total. Hopefully bodes well for the Blast.
The success of Big Wes with the ball continued today when he returned figures of 4-0-32-4 and that included another three catches by Billings off his bowling. Wes has only played two matches to date with those figures of 7-57 and yet is third top wicket taker in the BB with Rogers (7 wickets in 4 games) and Dwarshuis (10 in 4) the only ones above him.
Rogers had a cameo of an innings at the end of the match with 23 off 17 following his return of 4-0-31-1 with the ball
There's a lot of twists between now and the Blast but this could be our side for the initial stages of the competition (I'm assuming that Crawley won't be available) with, perhaps, one place open to debate and dependent on the needs on the day and the form of the individuals in question:
We definitely underachieved in the Blast this year. Realistically we're always going to be red ball strugglers in Div 1, but no reason why we can't do better in the white ball game.
Cook has confirmed that Kent won't be going on a pre-season tour but some of the batsmen will go for a camp in India
“Again, it comes down to prioritising with our finances.
“If you go away on a pre-season tour - and you take 30 players and staff away - you’re probably talking about spending the best part of £80,000 which we don’t have.
“We have encouraged the players to go away. We have only got seven or eight in the country and that’ll drop again in January as they disappear off to get some warm-weather training."
Incredible game in the BB with the Renegades, at one point 10-4 (4.3) and 47-5 (9.3) and Wells still to come in with a torn hamstring, chasing down 148 with 2 balls to spare. The purpose of posting this on here is that the match winning partnership was between Sutherland (70 off 45) and our overseas, Rogers who ended up with 49* (31) and scoring the winning runs. Rogers also took another couple of wickets and is the leading wicket taker in the whole tournament with 13.
Ben Dawkins in the U19 squad for the tour of S Africa. A young keeper/batter.
Ben is South African born but educated here (in final year at Sevenoaks School) and is a very tall, big hitting, opening bat. Having seen him at first hand a number of times, I can't help thinking that the keeping side of things might become a secondary skill, on the one hand because of his size and on the other due to the fact that he opens i.e. he's a younger version of Zak Crawley with the bat and more likely to be seen keeping for that reason in white ball rather than the longer form of the game. James Rew's brother, Thomas, has been keeping for England U19s in the games Ben has played in, for the same reasons I suspect and Thomas is once again in the squad for the South Africa tour.
The one thing I can't understand is why there has been no announcement of a contract for Ben? Cook has already said that he will be given opportunities in the 50 over comp and both Jaydn and Ekansh were contracted as soon as they reached 18 (Ben was 18 in October). I don't think he can play for the 1st XI unless he is on a rookie contract, at the very least, although, perhaps, he will sign one prior to the 50 over comp.
12th man today but he wouldn't have done much worse than the team that played for the Renegades given that their top scorer only made 26 out of a total of 123 all out. The Stars batted first and were, at one point, themselves 75-7 but then Maxwell smashed 90 off 52 balls. Maxwell shared a stand of 81 with Mir of which the latter made the grand total of zero!!!
Matt Milnes's older brother, Ben, is captain of the Tamworth side that is currently holding Spurs to a draw at half time. Ben was in the Notts academy until he had to make a choice between football and cricket. Matt is at the game too.
Another connection with Kent is the Tamworth keeper, Jas Singh, though anyone that has ever seen our Jas play football would instantly know, even without watching the game, that it isn't him!
Another of the Kent Women's side that came through our pathway has left. It is absolutely disgraceful that the most successful side in the history of the women's game with eight County Championship and three T20 titles, missed out on Tier 1 status and as a result have lost a complete side with no hope whatsoever of being promoted to Tier 1 for at least another four years.
The ECB talk about "protecting the integrity of the county game" in preventing players from competing in franchise cricket but aren't worried about the damage they are causing to most of the counties that do not host The Hundred i,e, the Tier 2 clubs are Derbyshire, Glamorgan (until 2027), Gloucestershire, Kent, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Middlesex, Sussex, Worcestershire and Yorkshire (until 2026).
Comments
A reminder of our squad for 2025 as it currently looks:
Batsmen:
Chris Benjamin
Daniel Bell-Drummond
Ben Compton
Zak Crawley
Joe Denly
Jack Leaning
Tawanda Muyeye
Ekansh Singh
Keepers
Sam Billings (white ball)
Ben Dawkins
Harry Finch
Seamers:
Wes Agar (overseas, April-July)
Michael Cohen
Joey Evison
George Garrett
Nathan Gilchrist
Fred Klaassen (white ball)
Matt Quinn
Tom Rogers (overseas, Vitality Blast)
Jas Singh
Grant Stewart
Spinners:
Jaydn Denly
Marcus O'Riordan
Matt Parkinson
Getting in early with that and waiting for the first "piss off Canters" to get that out the way!
20 overs first innings, 25 overs second innings.
How I pray for a better season that I can actually enjoy!
No need for us to worry about that, so will we ...
Rogers had a cameo of an innings at the end of the match with 23 off 17 following his return of 4-0-31-1 with the ball
There's a lot of twists between now and the Blast but this could be our side for the initial stages of the competition (I'm assuming that Crawley won't be available) with, perhaps, one place open to debate and dependent on the needs on the day and the form of the individuals in question:
Muyeye
DBD
Denly (Joe)
Leaning
Billings
Evison
Benjamin/Finch/Stewart/Denly (Jaydn)
Rogers
Agar
Parkinson
Klaassen
“Again, it comes down to prioritising with our finances.
“If you go away on a pre-season tour - and you take 30 players and staff away - you’re probably talking about spending the best part of £80,000 which we don’t have.
“We have encouraged the players to go away. We have only got seven or eight in the country and that’ll drop again in January as they disappear off to get some warm-weather training."Ben Dawkins in the U19 squad for the tour of S Africa. A young keeper/batter.
The one thing I can't understand is why there has been no announcement of a contract for Ben? Cook has already said that he will be given opportunities in the 50 over comp and both Jaydn and Ekansh were contracted as soon as they reached 18 (Ben was 18 in October). I don't think he can play for the 1st XI unless he is on a rookie contract, at the very least, although, perhaps, he will sign one prior to the 50 over comp.
Muyeye joins the Renegades in the Big Bash
Another connection with Kent is the Tamworth keeper, Jas Singh, though anyone that has ever seen our Jas play football would instantly know, even without watching the game, that it isn't him!
The ECB talk about "protecting the integrity of the county game" in preventing players from competing in franchise cricket but aren't worried about the damage they are causing to most of the counties that do not host The Hundred i,e, the Tier 2 clubs are Derbyshire, Glamorgan (until 2027), Gloucestershire, Kent, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Middlesex, Sussex, Worcestershire and Yorkshire (until 2026).
https://somersetcountycc.co.uk/news/first-xi/somerset-sign-olivia-barnes/?fbclid=IwY2xjawH0xhpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHfFMETDSy6cN_lXEy05QEMS7kn9IF5BNS-r09XDP96E-QMEEnMs2tNeLyQ_aem_PWAVCiMb4HZjqgwCcDDjCQ