Kent chief executive Jamie Clifford has revealed work on the permanent St Lawrence Ground floodlights is progressing.

Mr Clifford (pictured) said they had been fortunate because, despite the recent weather, things had moved on well at the ground in a short space of time.

“When we need the good winter weather is January and February really as that’s a key time for the project as we prepare for the start of the new season, so fingers crossed we don’t have a repeat of last year," he said.

“The floodlights are currently being put together in China, Italy and Nottingham and we expect to see them arrive on site either at the end of March or the start of April.”

Mr Clifford welcomed the increase in home T20 games from five to eight, after the fixtures were unveiled this week.

He said: “We’re really looking forward to the start of next season. It’s tremendous to be able to bring floodlit cricket back after a two-year absence and we are all looking forward to the match against India on the August bank holiday weekend, which we expect to pull in some good crowds.”

He added: “In total, we will have five floodlit matches, three home Twenty20 matches, one in the CB40 competition and the tour match against India.

“It’ll be the last summer under this current schedule with these competitions in their existing formats, but it’s one we like the look of.”

Mr Clifford also reported that membership sales were at a four-year high.

He said: “We’ve had a great take-up since announcing the new membership packages and it’s the most number of memberships we have sold at this point for the last four years.

“People really seem to like the deals we are offering for next season and the response has been really encouraging.”