Director of cricket Simon Cook believes Kent are in a position where they need to “maximise every single penny” in their budget.

Kent are again preparing to compete in County Championship Division 1 this summer after they narrowly avoided relegation last term on the final day.

With plenty of their divisional rivals earning extra revenue through hosting England men’s matches or Hundred sides - or both - that’s not a luxury Kent presently have.

Cook said: “Financially, we’re not going to struggle - but we are going to be competing on an uneven playing field. We do what we can with what we have got.

“It just means we have got to be a bit smarter with every pound we spend.

“We just need to make sure that we maximise every single penny out of that pound. We will continue to do that.

“I hadn’t really taken into account inflation when I’m a bowling coach or going through life but everyone in the country is feeling inflation. Nobody more so than county cricket clubs.

“It’s going to account for quite a bit of our additional spending this year. They’re the sort of things that you have to think about as a director of cricket.

“It’s not so much about ‘Let’s go and get an overseas player’ or ‘Let’s go and sign someone on loan’ - ‘Let’s go and do this’, ‘Let’s go and do that’ - there are knock-on consequences to every decision that we make.

“But that’s part of the fun of county cricket and part of the joy of doing this is that it’s not straightforward. If it was straightforward, everyone would do it.

“That’s one of the main things that I really enjoy.”

With Cook having only had one close season in his new role, it’s hard for him to tell if the financial gap between those teams is expanding.

He offered some insight on what could potentially be on offer for a player in the T20 Blast compared to other franchise leagues, though.

“It’s difficult for me to tell from that perspective,” Cook said. “I just think, from a cricket perspective, it’s getting harder.

“Our playing windows are getting squeezed left, right and centre.

“You can go to the MLC (Major League Cricket in the United States) and get £175,000 for five games or you can come and play in the Blast for not even a quarter of that, potentially.

“You make your choice there as to which one you want to go with.”

But, despite those challenges, Kent have been able to sign two Australian overseas fast bowlers in Wes Agar and Xavier Bartlett for the first half of this campaign.

Cook said: “The challenge of the World Cup, Major League Cricket and all those other franchises - including the IPL - start to creep into our playing window (in England).

“Then, it becomes increasingly difficult to get overseas coverage for the vast majority of the year.

“Having these two locked in until at least the end of July, that’s really positive.”

Ensuring both Agar and Bartlett were available for the T20 Blast competition was particularly key with Dutch bowler Fred Klaassen away with his country for the T20 World Cup in June, which will be held in the West Indies and the United States.

Cook explained: “The T20 specialists are few and far between. We will lose Fred to the Dutch side for that tournament, as well.

“Making sure we had two bowlers who could cover in both formats was important.

“We also needed to make sure that they wouldn’t be around in that World Cup shake-up, as well.

“That was a priority task for the first half of the year and then we are still working on options for the back-half.

“We will be clearer on that, once we get into the season.”