Kent vice-captain Sam Northeast gave his backing to the new deals for some of the core of Kent’s team.

He said locking-up the likes of Adam Riley, Daniel Bell-Drummond and Sam Billings was ‘great news’ for the club.

The 24-year-old claimed: “We need to try and keep as many of the guys around as possible.

"Everyone knows at this club we have got some really good youngsters. We’d love to see them progress, but we want it to be here, not somewhere else.”

He added: “You probably get bored of us saying ‘the future’s bright’ but then not going up, but we think we’ve got a good squad and in the future we can go on and win things.”