Kent chief executive Paul Millman has confirmed that the club’s management board have agreed to the funding of a five-year plan to re-lay the square at their St Lawrence headquarters in Canterbury.

Mr Millman says that three wickets will be dug up and re-laid each winter for the next five close-seasons at a cost of £5,000 per pitch.

The long awaited announcement follows criticism in recent years from both players and fans that the St Lawrence wickets have become slow and predictable, making for particularly disappointing one-day cricket, although there has been an undoubted improvement in 2008.