MILLIONAIRE businessman Stewart Stennett has emerged as one of the candidates behind a members’ power struggle within Kent County Cricket Club.

The 58-year-old from Cranleigh in Surrey is father-in-law of former Kent and England all-rounder Mark Ealham, who controversially left the club last season to join Nottinghamshire.

Mr Stennett first became known to county supporters back in May 1994 after threatening to sue Warwickshire following the infamous Edgbaston bowl-off that led to Kent’s Benson & Hedges Cup quarter-final exit.

A Kent member since he was 14, he has now stood up to be counted as the backer to Mr Graham Long, a life member of the club and a chauffeur from Wadhurst, near Tunbridge Wells.

Mr Long has already obtained 80 of the 100 signatures required to force an extraordinary general meeting and with it a potential vote of no confidence in Kent’s management.

Mr Stennett said: “I don’t think the club is managed very well and feel the format needs changing. I’d like to see a board of directors in there, no more than five, and a chairman to run it, then do away with the committee system so that some proper decisions can be made.

“It’s time the club was given to the supporters as their club and not a toy for the few. At the moment they run it how they want to run it, they’re not frightened of anyone.”

Mr Stennett, who started his Surrey-based UK plant hire and European freight firm in 1969, added: “I’m doing this for the members because I feel it’s a shame that they have won so little over recent years. Five overseas players is no good and must be costing a fortune, so why not show more loyalty to home-grown players?

“The way they handled Mark Ealham’s departure is a prime example of that. He’s just one player who has been let go or dropped, and look at what he’s done this year. I am a Kent fan, but I’ve seen them do that to Mark and the same to Mike Denness, Alan Ealham, Vince Wells, Neil Taylor - there’s a list as long as your arm.

“The accounting has to be more transparent so that everyone can understand it, because at this moment in time you never know what really gets spent on overseas players at Kent. I’ve always advocated going for good players who are with you all the time, have an overseas player by all means, but have him there for the summer.”

Mr Stennett hopes that by obtaining the 100-strong petition club officials will sit up and look more closely at the constitution and the way the county is run.

“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to wreck the club because that’s no good to anyone. I just want to ensure the club is run properly, efficiently, for the supporters and to have harmony in the dressing room and success on the field.

“It is run well in certain areas and a lot of the backroom staff are very good, but they panic buy players which makes me believe there isn’t much of a plan in place. It may be that I just sit down and chat with the powers that be, but I’m not sure how much effect that would have in the long term.”

Mr Long is pleased Kent have agreed to host a members’ forum in an effort to appease supporters, but feels that problems will remain deep-rooted within the club’s infrastructure.

He said: “They’ve organised this members’ forum for October 12, sure that’s a start, but I don’t think it’ll really change anything.

“I guess I’m questioning the club’s ambition. I’m not sure if the management at Kent wants to win trophies, they just seem happy to sail along, but that’s not good enough anymore. And now we’ve been relegated in the totesport League they’ve lost the ability to boast about being the only county never to have been in Division 2.

“The club need to realise that it’s not only me who’s unhappy. In my view they should be seriously concerned at the groundswell of opinion against them, but they don’t seem to see it.

“We have this Band of Brothers institution running the club and that’s gone on long enough now. It’s not run by people who care or who are desperate to do so, they simply run it because they can. The way things are set up at the moment Kent don’t seem likely of winning anything.”

Mr Long is also critical of the three-pronged coaching structure, the club’s record in the transfer market or the proliferation of under-achieving overseas ‘stars’.

“Having three coaches in charge of our team troubles a lot of people and I can’t think that’s the greatest set up in the world,” he added.

“I’m not having a go at the playing staff here, though I will complain about the signings we’ve made. Add to that the fact that we’ve used five overseas players this season. Only one of the five was good enough, Symonds, and I doubt we’ll see him again. Afridi wasn’t up to it and Bevan was a waste of money.

“I said at the time that getting rid of Mark (Ealham) was a mistake and this totesport relegation has proved me right. Some of our one-day performances since Mark left have been awful and I also question the man management of the players."

As for the next step, Mr Long added: “If we get 100 signatures Stewart and I shall speak with the club to see where we take it from there. Whether that be through an EGM or not, I feel there has to be change, that’s why I’m doing it."