KENT will travel to Edgbaston without former captain David Fulton ahead of tomorrow’s final championship away game against Warwickshire.

The 34-year-old opening batsman, who is out of contract at the end of the month, has been dropped from the county’s 12-man squad to make the trip to Birmingham.

The move will be seen as a first indicator that Kent may not be offering Fulton, who has now played 199 first-class games for the county, a new deal for 2007.

Fulton said: “After almost 200 games for the club it would have been nice to go out on my own terms, but there is little place for sentiment in professional sport and I fully understand that.

“No player is bigger than a club and clearly Kent have one eye on the future.”

Fulton’s place in the side will go to Joe Denly, the young, former England Under-19 right-hander from Whitstable who has shown good 2nd team form of late, scoring 166 and 55 against Surrey 2nd at Beckenham last week while taking match figures of 8-129 with his wrist-spinners.

Fulton added: “When I was told the news I went over and shook Joe by the hand and wished him all the best at Edgbaston and in the future.

“He’s a bright young talent, one for the future, but now is the time for me to decide where my future lies.

“I have put a proposal to the club for next year because they are well aware I would love to put something back into the county.

“What comes of that I don’t know as yet, but I wouldn’t like to think my last shot in cricket was that poorly played pull that got me out against Sussex last week.”

With no overseas players to select and injury doubts still hanging over Min Patel, Robbie Joseph and Martin Saggers, Kent skipper Rob Key is down to the bare bones of a bowling attack.

Key may use the emerging leg-spinners of Denly to compliment the off-spinners of James Tredwell, fresh from career-best match figures against Sussex, and use part-time seamers from Neil Dexter and Darren Stevens to make up the overs.

With so many injuries, the club skipper may even turn to young Kent Academy seam bowler Alex Blake.

An 18-year-old Hayes School pupil, he plays Kent Premier League cricket for Beckenham, batting left-handed and bowling right-arm fast-medium.

He did his selection cause some good by taking three for nine for the Kent Cricket Academy side in Sunday’s Dukes Development League final in Wimbledon.

The Academy beat Beddington by 103 runs and Blake, batting at No5, contributed 23 with the bat for good measure.

Hosts Warwickshire lie fourth in the championship, some 28 points ahead of fifth-placed Kent, with the sides having mustered only 10 Liverpool Victoria Division 1 wins between them all summer.

With all but bragging rights to play for, Kent will want to build on their impressive nine-wicket win over Warwickshire at Tunbridge Wells in June.

Apart from hoping to avoid a third straight championship defeat, Kent will also want to put up an improved performance in the second city to ensure Durham or Yorkshire cannot drag them into a last game relegation dogfight in their last game of the season against seemingly doomed Middlesex.

Skipper Rob Key will take part in the game after missing the closing hours of his side’s three-day defeat to Sussex last week to be with his wife Fleur at the birth of their first child Aaliyah, who was born at the Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.

The game is scheduled to start from 10.30am.

Probable Kent squad to face Warwickshire: Key, Denly, van Jaarsveld, Walker, Stevens, Dexter, Jones, Tredwell, Cook, Joseph, Patel, Blake.