Robbie Joseph is hungry for further success after finally fulfilling his potential last summer.

Although the 27-year-old paceman made his Kent debut in 2004, he only played 21 matches in the four next seasons.

But the county‘s investment in him started to pay dividends when Joseph took 55 championship wickets in 2008 at an average of 26.05, earning him a call-up to the England Lions squad.

He said: “Last year was my first as a professional cricketer so things have changed a little bit.

“All winter I have just focused on my cricket and I am now hoping it will pay off. It’s still a little bit strange that, having only featured fully for one year, I did so well.

“My aim is to move forward and not stay stagnant. If I was happy to do as well as last year it would be absolutely rubbish because I would be selling myself short.

“This is a new year and what happened last year has gone. If nothing else happens in my life I’ll have that to look back on and say ‘2008 was great’ but that’s not what I want. I want to say that was an alright year but the years afterwards were better.”

Joseph’s displays for Kent earned him a call up to the England Performance Squad for the winter tour of India and their training camp in Abu Dhabi.

He was then chosen to join Kent team-mates Joe Denly and Rob Key in the Lions squad to face New Zealand A in a series of 'Test' and one-day matches.

He said: “I didn’t have very good performances in the Test or one-dayers, but I learned a lot from that tour, such as the way different wickets play and the kind of skills you need to survive in this game.”

Joseph is desperate to avoid a repeat of last season when Kent challenged for honours on all fronts before getting relegated, missing out in the Pro 40 and losing the finals of the Twenty20 Cup and Friends Provident Trophy.

“To get close to winning everything doesn’t happen that often and for it to end the way it did is devastating,” he said. “But I would rather try to win all four and be devastated than to go hard for one competition, lose it, and then the others aren’t within your reach.

“Some people would play it safe and say if we win two then it is better than not winning at all, but I am greedy when it comes to things like that.”