WHILST never looking a gift horse in the mouth, Kent may have hoped for much more than the £42,000 bonus they will receive from the ECB following last summer’s lucrative Ashes series.

The first-class counties who did not host a Test last season will receive the additional pay off after submissions to the board asking for a fairer distribution of profits from several club’s, including a paper from Kent chairman Carl Openshaw.

In his submission Mr Openshaw proposed a £200,000 bonus for the non-Test match hosting clubs which might have gone a long way to balancing the books following Kent’s record losses of £310,000 from 2005.