Kent Cricket 2025

MrOneLung said:

are we going warm weather training ?
Essex are in Abu Dhabi at moment

Cook said that we can't afford to do that. About eight players went to India recently to train. First game starts Sunday week. Good luck to any spinners trying to grip the ball. Absolutely ridiculous.  

fenaddick said:

Darren Stevens back to help the batters before the season starts

https://x.com/KentCricket/status/1901924824605200580

We've not had a batting coach for the last 18 months. Toby Radford was hired as "batting consultant" and is based in Wales I believe. The official site still has him in that position (and it is usually updated) so one must assume that Stevens will be employed to complement Radford with the former from a psychology/ how to dominate the opposition bowling perspective and the latter more a technical expert. That's not to say that either can't do both but those are their strengths. 

At the end of the day though, apart from the pathway players who will receive coaching too, these are professional batters. It is up to them to correct their failings and neither Radford, nor Stevens, can bat for them. 

fenaddick said:

Stevens is described as a consultant too so still no actual coach 

I suspect that they will share the job. It's cheaper to hire coaches on an ad hoc basis. Radford is very good technically but he's proximity means that he's probably hired on a week by week basis with a fully filled book. Equally, a lot of players will have their own batting coaches that they will turn to when things aren't working out as they should be. Some players, though, are so set in their ways that they cannot change them. 

Fast bowling coaches are a bit different in the sense that sometimes it is technical but at other times they are there to help them come from injury - which by the job's nature happens a lot. Which is probably why we have Robbie Joseph on a full time basis. The spin coach will be Min Patel who will combine that with his role as Head of Talent Pathway. 

Men’s Head Coach Adam Hollioake has named his first squad of 13 for this two-day warm-up match against Sussex. All 13 players will feature at some point across both days as this match is not being played under first-class regulations.

Daniel Bell-Drummond skippers the side for the first time this season, with Chris Benjamin set to make his first appearance for Kent.

Joe Denly sustained a fractured arm whilst batting in the nets this week, and is unavailable for selection at this time. Further updates on his expected return to the side will be communicated in subsequent match previews.

Jack Leaning has suffered a hamstring injury during training and is expected to return in the near future. Marcus O’Riordan has a lower back spasm and is unavailable for this game.

Zak Crawley could play in Kent’s next friendly against Essex next week, with his training workloads closely monitored by the ECB.

Mikey Cohen is training through his return-to-bowling schedule in South Africa and will not feature in Kent’s season warm-up fixtures. He will return to Canterbury ahead of the beginning of the 2025 county season.

To provide context, the Men’s squad selection committee consists of Simon Cook (Director of Cricket), the Captain & Vice Captain of the specific format played, Adam Hollioake (Men’s Head Coach) and Dan George (Head of Science & Medicine).

Players will be selected to play in the team that most reflects their ability to contribute to winning the game. This will be influenced by current performance, training performance, and past performance.

Players will be picked to perform a specific role in the team, which will be communicated by the Head Coach to ensure the players have clarity and engagement in the game.

Where possible and applicable, Academy players will be able to be part of the squad to gain experience and understanding of the next level, but those without a professional or rookie deal will be unable to play first-team cricket as per ECB regulations.

000__Jaaaaay__000 said:

Addick Addict said:

Quinn left the field after bowling 9 balls. 

Absolute waste of a wage and that isn’t taking into account how average he is at bowling. Why was he given such a long term contract ? 

Depending on how things develop this season, we could find some serious changes in the squad next year as I believe only four or five have contracts that extend beyond this season.