Captain Sam Northeast is planning a revamp of Kent’s pre-season plans as he plots a way to get his side firing early enough in the season to mount a promotion challenge.

Last year Kent played a two-day friendly at Hampshire in their only action before the three-day Loughborough MCCU fixture.

They lost their opening two games at Essex and Lancashire before home draws with Leicester and Glamorgan, and didn’t collect their first four-day win until May 18 at Gloucestershire.

The previous year they lost at Worcester and drew at home to Leicestershire before winning their third game against Surrey, while in 2013 they didn’t taste victory until July at Gloucestershire.

Their second-game win at Northants in 2012 was an improvement but April 2011’s 57-run win at Essex – a game in which Northeast made a century – is the only time they have won their opening fixture in the last 11 seasons.

Northeast – currently playing Grade cricket in Brisbane for Sunshine Coast Scorchers – said newly-relegated Worcester away on April 10 would be ‘a tough start’ to the LV= County Championship Division 2 season and added: “We will have to make sure we prepare well in pre-season.

“It’s not so much about who we’re playing as focusing on ourselves.”

He admitted: “We haven’t started well in recent years. We took too long to find our form and confidence last year, and by the time we did, it was too late. In the latter stages of the season we showed we can match the best.

“It would be lovely to get back to Canterbury in May with two wins under our belts. I think it’s going to be a very tight division next year, with a lot of teams beating each other.”

Northeast acknowledged the club “have to change something” about pre-season and added: “We definitely want a few more practice games, something to get us used to competitive cricket.

“We don’t want to just have the Loughborough MCCU game, and get one bat because the weather is bad or something.

“We want to get a feel for match conditions so that our first game of the season is not our first game and we are already into it.”

Northeast also claimed he and coach Jimmy Adams were keen to persuade club officials to fund an overseas signing this winter – so long as the right candidate became available.

He added: “I have faith in the squad but we always have our ears to the ground and hopefully we will be able to sign an overseas player – any additions though are going to have to be high quality.”