It's fair to say the organisers of this year's Sports Personality of the Year Awards in December are going to face some challenges.

With an enormous hole blown in the sporting schedule for 2020, fans have been left twiddling their thumbs while the athletes have spent their time trying to keep fit and posting daft social media videos.

So what better time to look back at some of the world's biggest sporting events which have taken place right here in the county over the years as we await a return to something resembling normality?

From Formula 1 to the Cricket World Cup, there's been some crackers over the years...

Cricket World Cup

While international cricket has long since found a home in the regions, Kent has been a bit light on the ground for the big matches – primarily due to its proximity to London and the big showcase venues such as Lord's and the Oval.

But there have been moments when the county found itself at the centre of the sport's biggest occasions.

It has twice hosted matches as part of the Cricket World Cup – one of which saw the England team pay a visit, and another which remains the setting for one of the great one-day international innings.

Tunbridge Wells' Nevill Ground had been selected as the venue for a group stage clash between Zimbabwe and India.

Drawn in a four-team group which also featured the all-conquering West Indies and Australia, the unfancied Zimbabwe had already sprung a shock in their first World Cup game by beating Australia, while India, desperate to progress past the group stage for the first time in the tournament's history, arrived in Tunbridge Wells having had consecutive defeats at the hands of the Windies and the Aussies.

Electing to bat first, India captain Kapil Dev must has been ruing his decision when talismanic opener Sunil Gavaskar was skittled out for a duck and amid a flurry of early wickets India found themselves four down and with a paltry nine runs on the board.

Enter Kapil Dev to the crease at the Nevill. An unbeaten 175 runs later and India ended their innings 266-8. With three overs left, Zimbabwe were skittled out for 235 handing India a 31-run win.

The belief it injected into the team saw India not only qualify for the knock-out stages for the first time, but go on to win the trophy - beating England in the semi-final and the West Indies at Lord's exactly one week after the triumph in Tunbridge Wells.

Gavaskar would later say "as a player and as a commentator, I've never seen a better innings" than that on June 18, 1983.

However, the match was not televised so footage of his remarkable effort lives on only in the memory of those spectators who were there.

In 1999, the tournament returned when Canterbury was selected to host England v Kenya in the group stages. Not quite the fixture to whet the appetite, but the St Lawrence was packed for the visit from a national team which featured the likes of Nasser Hussein, Alex Stewart, Darren Gough and local hero Mark Ealham. Temporary stands boosted the capacity at the ground to some 10,000.

Kenya were no match to the hosts and England romped to a nine-wicket win with 11 overs remaining.

Formula 1

For more than 20 years, Formula 1 was a regular visitor to Brands Hatch – something which may come as something of a surprise to many youngsters who follow the sport.

But the West Kingsdown track isn't known the world over for no good reason.

From 1964 to 1986 it hosted 12 visits by the F1 circus – alternating hosting the British Grand Prix with Silverstone. It also hosted the occasional European GP – including in 1983 when it stepped in at the last moment after protests in New York forced a planned race in the US to be called off.

Capitalising on the track extension built in 1960 – what is today opened up as the 'grand prix circuit' – the track's proximity to London made it a popular destination, coupled with its natural amphitheatre setting which made it ideal for fans.

The first race in 1964 saw Jim Clark beat Graham Hill (dad of future champion Damon) by 2.8 seconds with Kent's very own John Surtees coming home third.

Over the years all the top racers battled it out for honours with the final GP in 1986 being won, fittingly, by Britain's Nigel Mansell in front of 110,000 fans. He beat off the challenges of rivals Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet and the legendary Ayrton Senna.

Of particular note was a pile-up near the start of the race which saw French driver Jacques Laffite break both his legs – bringing an end to his F1 career. Going to his aid was fellow driver, the Brit Jonathan Palmer who had been a GP before swapping the stethoscope for the steering wheel. Today, Palmer is the boss of MotorSport Vision, the company which runs Brands Hatch, along with a host of other circuits.

Brands lost out to Silverstone after F1 bosses insisted on securing long-term deals. Despite plenty of talk of getting it back on the calendar, the huge fees demanded to host races, and Brands' relatively small footprint, compared to Silverstone, has seen it carve out a reputation, instead, of being one of the UK's most cherished circuits.

The Open

Of course, 2020 should have been a glorious summer of sport, what with Euro 2020, the Olympic Games and, crowning it for us Kent folk, the Open returning to Sandwich for the first time since 2011.

Coronavirus proved something of a party pooper, however, and so we must contain our excitement for another year before golf's major returns to the rolling links course.

Royal St George's has certainly been no stranger to the Open over the years.

It has so far hosted 13 championships since its first in 1894 when it created a little bit of history by becoming the first club outside of Scotland to host the tournament.

Joining it as a host shortly afterwards was Royal Cinque Ports – a club just down the coast in neighbouring Deal. It would hold both the 1909 and 1920 Open. However, Mother Nature was below par when the course was due to host both the 1938 and 1949 tournaments, with coastal flooding forcing the event to be relocated to Royal St George's. Deal hasn't been back on the rota since.

Also briefly on the host venue list was Prince's Golf Club in Sandwich. It hosted the 1932 tournament. Ever since then Royal St George's is the only venue in the county to get a look in.

Not that it saw much action between 1949 and 1981 when, after it carried out a host of improvements to both the course and access to the venue, it was back.

Since then it has regularly welcomed the creme de la creme of the golfing world.

Winners have included Greg Norman, Sandy Lyle and Darren Clarke.

Although Tiger Woods missed the 2011 event with a knee injury, he was there in 2003 playing alongside Nick Faldo, Ernie Els and Tom Watson. Tiger ended tied in fourth as the little known Ben Curtis took the crown. Some 180,000 fans had attended during that year's event.

London 2012

While plenty of locations across the county were used as a base for international teams in the build up to the London 2012 Olympic Games, not to mention the countless spectators using the county's high-speed rail services to get to and from the Olympic Park in east London, it was Brands Hatch which was the only venue which provided the backdrop for any medal action.

The circuit was used to host the Paralympics road cycling competition - and it capitalised on the nation's whole-hearted buy-in to the summer sporting extravaganza by delivering one of the great victories.

Thousands flocked to the venue to watch the action and all were on their feet when former Formula One ace Alex Zanardi completed one of the most astonishing comebacks in world sport.

Just 11 year previous, while racing in a German outing for the now-defunct US oval-circuit CART championship, the Italian had been involved in an horrific crash which had seen both his legs amputated.

After staging a remarkable recovery, he set about training to represent Italy in handcycling in the 2012 Paralympics.

To provide a fitting end to the fairytale, he triumphed and took home the gold medal, saying afterwards: "I’ve had a magical adventure - and this is a fantastic conclusion."

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