KENT’S cricketers will not be following Lancashire’s lead by wearing football-style shirts with numbers and names in this summer’s county championship. The Red Rose county experimented throughout the 2001 campaign by wearing names and squad numbers on their white kit for county and ‘red-ball’ limited overs’ matches.

Lancashire members believed the idea a success, encouraging the England and Wales Cricket Board to allow the 17 other counties to follow suit should they wish. But Kent’s head of marketing Jon Fordham, says Kent players will not be wearing numbers in championship matches for the foreseeable future.

“Let’s just say we are keeping it under review,” said Mr Fordham. “Having names and numbers on our white kit would create problems. Would we wear squad numbers or a simple one to 11? That also has implications on printing scorecards and what numbers you show on the scoreboards, so we have decided to leave things as they stand for now.”

Under the ECB’s new advertising guidelines, players and umpires will now be permitted to wear a sponsors' emblem up to 32 square inches rather than the previous regulation of 10 square inches. Logos will also be permitted on one arm of each player’s long-sleeved sweater and on the back of an umpire's coat.