totesport League, Twenty20 and C&G Trophy season review

ONLY three matches into Kent’s totesport League Division 2 campaign a disgruntled Kent supporter, having witnessed the side’s 19-run defeat at Warwickshire, moaned: "Well at least we can’t get relegated this year."

It proved to be a phrase and a performance that just about summed up another appalling summer of limited overs cricket in which a mid-season change of captaincy served only to confuse Kent’s faltering game plan even further.

Come the season’s end on September 25 and another away drubbing, this time at the hands of Leicestershire at Grace Road, Kent had mustered just six league wins to finish third from bottom ahead of only Yorkshire and Scotland.

Yet their overall one-day record of nine victories from 29 starts makes for even bleaker reading and the conclusion that Spitfires are again guilty of woeful underachievement in all formats of the limited overs game.

David Fulton’s decision to stand down from the Twenty20 side for the second season running led to his ultimate removal from the captaincy.

He lost a vote of no confidence among the club’s senior players and coaches ahead of July’s Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy exit back in Birmingham and was forced to hand the poisoned chalice onto Matthew Walker.

But despite last winter’s signings of Simon Cook and Darren Stevens as proven one-day performers, it appeared Kent never had a game plan their squad believed in, nor really knew the make up of their best limited overs team.

Little wonder then that Walker struggled to rally a side low on confidence and short on form and that the season ended in disarray with three straight league defeats as senior players rested forcing untried juniors to carry the can in games at Durham, Canterbury and Leicester.

When they hold their close-season inquest Kent will pinpoint weaknesses in both key areas of the game; a lack of runs on the board and their bowling attack’s inability to smother opposing batsmen or bowl sides out.

The fact that Spitfires scored over 250 on only three occasions and that Kent had just two players in the top 30 of the national league averages (Justin Kemp and Martin van Jaarsveld) tells its own sorry tale.

Only van Jaarsveld scored over 500 league runs while the likes of Fulton, Walker, Rob Key, Stevens and Michael Carberry all averaged in the 20s and were guilty of under-performing.

Wicketkeeper Geraint Jones missed a dozen league matches through international commitments and scored just 44 runs in his five appearances, often playing as a pinch-hitting opener at England’s request.

Not that understudy Niall O’Brien fared much better, the Irishman took only eight catches and averaged 13.5 after mustering 108 runs in his 12 starts.

As for the bowling, Martin Saggers struggled for form taking only 13 wickets costing 38 apiece from his 15 starts and failed to give the cutting edge at the start or keep things quiet come the death.

He was one of four players to claim 13 wickets, six less than leading wicket-taker Cook, who may even be mildly disappointed with his return of 19.

Only Andrew Hall, with 13 wickets costing 20.38, appeared in the top 25 of the divisional averages, again highlighting another Spitfires weakness.

But for Hall’s excellence, van Jaarsveld’s runs and the eventual emergence of fellow-South African Kemp, who recovered from a shaky start to average 63, things might have been even worse.

Amjad Khan’s championship exertions dulled the edge to his one-day performances and his nine league appearances yielded 11 scalps at an average of 29 then, when nothing but pride was left to play for, Robbie Joseph was thrown in at the deep end to lead a shell-shocked attack.

Kent’s two young spinners James Tredwell and Rob Ferley both lacked the control they had in 2004 in taking 25 league wickets between them, though at least Tredwell proved miserly.

Kent’s C&G Trophy run lasted three games, eventually running out of steam in another disappointing quarter-final reverse at Edgbaston, that after decidedly dodgy wins over Wiltshire and Derbyshire, admittedly on equally dodgy pitches at Salisbury and the Old Racecourse ground.

As for the Twenty20 campaign, Kent were again clueless in winning only one of their eight zonal qualifiers.

Tactics, field placing and even the batting order were all at sea and seemingly liable to change at the drop of a hat leaving poor Walker as the scapegoat skipper at the helm of a sinking ship.

All this, coupled with an apparent ad hoc selection policy, sloppy fielding and a paucity of "on-field" presence made this a limited overs season to forget, yet 2005 is a year Kent simply must learn lessons from in order to prevent one-day attendances dwindling next summer.

Mark Pennell's four-day season review