Furious Kent captain Rob Key branded Thursday's ECB Pitch Panel enquiry over a suspect pitch at The Riverside a 'Muppet Show' after his side lost by 43 runs inside seven sessions of their LV Championship match with Durham.

The former England batsman said that excessive lateral seam movement of the surface off the pitch at the Chester-le-Street Test venue made batting nigh on impossible, this just a day after his side were skittled out for 78.

Only one batsman reached a half-century in the entire match leading Key to blast pitch panel officials David Hughes, Phil Sharpe and Chris Woods for not taking a firmer stance.

Key, who believes the integrity of the entire county championship competition has now been thrown into doubt, said: "There were 15 wickets on the first day when we lost a few overs to rain, then 23 the next when we lost seven overs, so all in all, 40 wickets have gone down in just two days and the ECB reckon there's nothing wrong with the pitch?

"The pitch liaison officers, we had a few of them down here yesterday for an interview, which was just a bit of a Muppet Show.

"By all accounts there was no excessive seam movement which is absolutely ridiculous. Everyone who went out there to bat struggled.

"What has to happen for a pitch to get docked points now? 50 all out, plays 50 all out and the game over in a day?

"The fact they've not lost any points or had a suspended decision put against them is absolutely ridiculous. I can't say how bad we feel about this. It isn't the fact we've lost, it isn't sour grapes, had we won this game I can assure you I would be saying the same things."

Key added: "The stats show you all you need to know. One person got past 50 in the whole game, but yet again there's nothing wrong with the pitch?

"You have the calibre of Michael Di Venuto, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Martin van Jaarsveld who don't look like getting runs on it, that's because you couldn't score runs on it. It was just a matter of time before you got out."

And as for his message to the ECB, Key added: "Don't have pitch liaison officers, that's a waste of money as far as I'm concerned now. If you're not going to do anything about a pitch like that then why waste your money paying these guys a salary to travel around the country looking at wickets like these and doing nothing about it?

"That's no-way fit for first-class cricket and if you want England team to do well you need players to play well in the championship, get runs and help their England chances. You also want your Test quick bowlers to work hard for their wickets on flat pitches, so don't produce pitches like that."

Former Kent players and the club's chairman of cricket, Graham Johnson, who was also at the ground to witness Kent's demise, said: "We're trying to find out what this decision was based upon. Because we have no right of appeal we want to understand how this ruling has come about because from our point of view it opens up a real can of worms.

"We aren't moaning because we've lost this game but because every team at the top of the Division 1 table might now think 'it's ok for 23 wickets to fall in a day'.

"We're trying to get some answers from Lord's but the point of contact for these matters, Andy Fordham, is on holiday, as is his PA, while David Collier is also out of the country, so getting any information is proving very difficult."