Jimmy Adams admits he’s not got Kent’s pre-season preparations right in previous campaigns, however this year everything is focused on ‘getting cracking’ before the opening game.

The former West Indies captain’s fifth season as head coach begins with the annual curtain-raiser against Loughborough MCCU at Canterbury starting next Tuesday (11am) with hopes high his side can compete on three fronts this summer.

Kent drew a two-day warm-up against an Essex side featuring Alastair Cook and Ravi Bopara last week and edged a T20 win over the same opponents. They play a friendly at Hampshire and host Durham this week.

With just one promotion place up for grabs in Specsavers County Championship Division 2 this season, Adams claims a fast start is critical and conceded: “In years gone by we probably haven’t been ready for the start of the season.

“We want to try and correct that this season and have a good first month and hopefully build something.”

He added: “We’ve spoken about Loughborough as a squad. It’s not a secret that we plan to take the game a lot more seriously than we have in the past.

“This is a First Class fixture and we want people to have that mindset.

"I don’t think we can afford, given previous experience, to take this game lightly – we need to approach it with a professional mindset. As a squad, we have accepted that."

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