THIS wonderful game of cricket has sprung many surprises on me over the years but our points deduction has to rate as one of the biggest of them all.

Yes the pitch was a little bowler friendly as a result of moisture but not many of the 33 dismissals can be blamed on the pitch.

The ball did swing a great deal and, from time to time, there was some lateral movement off the pitch, but there was nothing dangerous and no alarming seam movement.

The outfield was very slow and both first innings scores would have been 30 to 40 runs higher with a faster outfield.

For me the unpredictability of a cricket pitch is one of the really exciting and interesting elements of the game; some days the seam bowlers benefit, some days the out and out pacemen benefit, some days the spinners reap rewards and some days the batsmen win through.

Throughout the world coaches are teaching players to adapt quickly to the conditions of the day and make the most of it when conditions are favourable.

Bowlers often complain that administrators are making the game easier for batsmen. Perhaps they have a legitimate gripe and a right to feel hard done by.

Against Gloucestershire the bowlers had favourable conditions and got good results, but immediately it was deemed unfair.

But when teams score heavily and bowlers don’t get any help from the pitch you never hear any squeals of the playing surface being unfair in favour of the batters.

When I was involved with the South African national team we had a lot of batting talent to chose from and selection was always tough task.

But I found the most valuable batsmen to be those such as Kirsten, Kallis and Cullinan, who showed they had the technique and mental strength to make big scores even in conditions that suited the bowlers.

If county cricket gets to the stage where all pitches are 'batsman friendly' it is going to be harder for selectors to identify which players really have what it takes to play against the best bowlers in the world.

When a pitch is flat, batsmen have less need for good defensive techniques, yet at Test level against the best bowlers good defensive skills are a priority.

The pitch inspectors have an important role to play and need to make sure pitches are not deliberately tampered with to favour the home team, which was certainly not the case at Maidstone.

The whole incident is extremely unfortunate and I feel particularly sorry for the players who have worked hard and produced some really good championship performances.

The news of the eight-point deduction took some time to sink in and has been a hurtful experience for the squad and I hope it won’t affect the momentum we have in four-day cricket.

Twenty20 time is just around the corner and of course we are starting to formulate game plans and strategies.

It’s nice for us to have Darren Stevens with us at Kent now as his ideas on Leicestershire's successful formula last season will help us with our tactical approach.

The international Twenty20 matches, which begins at The Rose Bowl on Monday, promises to be a heart-stopping 240 balls of spectacular action and all the county teams will be scrutinising Aussie tactics and looking for new ideas.

Ashes fever is also upon us and although the county scene is my main focus I can’t wait for the ODI's and Test action to start.

The only certainty of the series is that productivity in many offices and places of work will suffer as fans won't want to be too far away from the nearest television.