FORMER West Indian Test and Kent county cricketer Hartley Alleyne is meeting lawyers on Friday in a last bid to stay in the country.

The cricket coach and boarding assistant at St Edmund's School, Canterbury, received another setback when a Home Office review upheld its decision not to grant him a work permit.

Mr Alleyne, 50, said: "This has been so draining for me. I don't know what options are left for me. Words fail me but rules are rules, they say."

Barbados-born Mr Alleyne, who has lived and worked in the UK for nearly 30 years, was refused a work permit because he does not have an NVQ. He has now started the qualification but is not sure it will make any difference.

He said: "It is so frustrating dealing with the Home Office. I do not know if this NVQ will change things for me."

Canterbury MP Julian Brazier said: "I am deeply saddened by this. At a time when government is failing to deport foreign terror suspects and fraudsters, it defies belief that we can turn out a man who has given nearly 30 years to English cricket."