Martin van Jaarsveld says the decision to commit himself to Kent is the right one for both cricketing and personal reasons.

The 35-year-old (pictured) has agreed a new three-year contract extension that keeps him at the St Lawrence Ground until 2012, and admitted it was a straight choice between staying or moving to Lancashire, after he rejected Surrey’s offer to lure him to The Brit Oval.

Van Jaarsveld, who lives at Chartham, with his wife Jill and young daughter, with another due later this year, said: "I delayed my decision because there was still a few things to iron out.

"I spoke to Surrey initially but there were a lot of things to consider about that, including uprooting the family, so I told them pretty early that it wasn’t going to happen and it ended up being a two-horse race between Lancashire and Kent."

"Jill’s parents live up North and there is a big support structure there, so we had so many things to consider. The longer we waited and discussed it, though, staying just felt right and made sense."

Van Jaarsveld celebrated his decision by scoring 51 in the victory against Derbyshire on Monday, passing 15,000 first class career runs in the process as he closed in on 1,000 this summer.

He added: "Getting to 1,000 runs is the first milestone for any county cricketer but I have set my sights a little bit higher than that."

Skipper Rob Key said: " It’s great news because players like him come once in a generation or a decade in county cricket, and we are lucky to have him."

Coach Simon Willis added: "Martin is the ultimate professional, and one of the best I have ever worked with."