Kent director of cricket Simon Cook is open to a schedule change which will see the One-Day Cup played at the start of the season in the future.

With another review of the county schedule due to start, that has been a suggestion made.

It’s one Cook can see the benefits of from a performance perspective, but accepts the proposal would also need to work financially.

He said: “It makes sense to have it at the start because it gives a soft transition in, with bowlers getting workloads up as a basic example of that.

“They’ll have to bowl eight to 10 overs [as a maximum per spell] through the first month of the season, leading into Championship cricket. That makes sense.

“Realistically, is that possible? Probably not, unless you start cutting a few things out.

“From a performance perspective, there’s one solution but, obviously, there’s the economic side and everything else that you need to knit into those decisions.”

The 2025 domestic cricket schedule was met with concerns for player welfare by the Professional Cricketers' Association when it was confirmed in November.

Asked if the current schedule allows for peak performance, Cook, who led Spitfires to One-Day Cup glory in 2022 as interim head coach, replied: “It definitely doesn’t.

“I think that’s widely acknowledged by everyone in the game. You cannot have this many forms of the game overlapping.

“Just the schedule around the T20s for example, you have a block of T20s, two Championship games, then back to T20s and you’re straight into another two Championship games. It just doesn’t fit so there will have to be some decisions at Lord’s around the amount of cricket and the formats that we play.

“Obviously, there’s another review into 50-over cricket and the importance of 50-over cricket, and I think 50-over cricket is a great game. Actually in the 50-over format, our players that have come through have really enjoyed adjusting to it.

“Obviously, we had success in 2022 and it’s a format we shouldn’t be putting on the back-burner. It should be up there.

“But is there space for it in the schedule currently? No, there’s not, so there’s some decisions to make at Lord’s.

“We’ll see what they come up with.”

Spitfires’ first 50-over game of 2025 will be a warm-up match against Norfolk on Monday, August 1, before they begin the Group B season with a fixture with Sussex Sharks three days later.

Kent started their pre-season schedule with a drawn two-day match against Sussex at Canterbury’s Spitfire Ground, with the game ending on Monday.

Red-ball captain Daniel Bell-Drummond (53 retired not out) and opening batsman Ben Compton (50) offered half-centuries in their first-innings 224/4 declared.

All-rounder Joey Evison (3-44) then was the pick of the bowlers as the visitors replied with 300/7 declared. Seam bowler Matt Quinn could only manage nine balls before he sustained a lower limb injury, having missed most of last term.

Kent got to 117/4 by the close of play on day two as all-rounder Grant Stewart top scored, offering 44, while Bell-Drummond finished unbeaten on 37.

Adam Hollioake’s outfit will be back in action in Canterbury against Essex in another two-day friendly from Thursday.

Entry again will be free to all.