Daniel Bell-Drummond will start life as Kent captain on home soil after the 2024 county cricket fixtures were announced on Thursday morning.

Kent will host Somerset in Division 1 of the County Championship at Canterbury from Friday, April 5 in what will be Bell-Drummond’s first game in permanent charge of the side after taking over as skipper from Sam Billings.

There’s a familiar look to the fixture list with seven County Championship games in the opening eight weeks of the season during April and May.

After meeting Somerset, Kent make the short trip to Chelmsford to take on Essex from Friday, April 12.

Kent will only play champions Surrey once in the four-day competition next summer - that game taking place at Canterbury from Friday, April 19.

The three other teams they only meet once in the County Championship are Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire and Durham.

The latter is in the final round of matches when Kent travel to Chester-le-Street to face Durham from Thursday, September 26. That means there’s no return to Canterbury for Durham’s former Kent wicketkeeper-batsman Ollie Robinson - unless he’s part of their Metro Bank One Day Cup.

The teams will meet in that competition on Sunday, August 11 at the St Lawrence ground.

Kent Spitfires’ Metro Bank One Day Cup campaign gets under way in Taunton against Somerset on Friday, July 26 and their coach drivers will be working overtime as they then make the trek up to Blackpool to face Lancashire two days later.

There are two matches at Beckenham - the only home games being away from Canterbury - in the competition, as there were this summer. Spitfires host Hampshire on Wednesday, July 31 and Middlesex on Sunday, August 4.

There’s an unusual start to life in the Vitality Blast T20 competition with Kent Spitfires playing away to Middlesex in Essex, with the match scheduled to take place at Chelmsford on Friday, May 31.

Billings will still captain the Spitfires during the shortened version of the game. The first home match is against Somerset on Friday, June 7 with Middlesex visiting two days later.

Spitfires finish off their group matches with three home games, against Sussex Sharks, Glamorgan and Surrey all at Canterbury.

The 172nd Canterbury Cricket Week will take place from Friday, June 21 which sees Spitfires host Essex in a T20 game and also includes a County Championship game with Lancashire from Sunday, June 23.