Frizzell County Championship season review

AFTER six months hard work and unstinting effort Kent's players and backroom staff were left with nothing to show from a strength-sapping county championship campaign that stretched team-spirit and club finances near to their limits.

Though mathematically Kent remained in the Frizzell Division 1 title race until the penultimate game of the season they ultimately finished a disappointing fifth with six wins from their 16 starts, one less than during their second-place finish of 2004.

Losing three matches in all, including their last two of the campaign to champions Nottinghamshire and third-placed Sussex, certainly took the gloss off a season that, after promising so much, was thrown into disarray by the re-call of the club's two South African all-rounders.

Andrew Hall and Justin Kemp had hit prime form at the most critical stage of the summer when, in late August, Kent received a three-line whip from the United Cricket Board of South Africa demanding their players attend an international squad training camp.

The pair had little option but to pack and leave for home and Kent's title hopes effectively went with them.

It was a cruel blow for the players remaining behind, their captain David Fulton and the club's administrators, who fought the re-call as strongly as they dare, but with the heartbeat of their side missing there was no surprise when Kent's season ended in despair.

Much was made of Fulton's decision to broker a nigh on impossible run chase deal in the penultimate game which ended in a disastrous defeat.

Hampshire skipper Shane Warne went on the record to berate Fulton, saying Kent had "handed the championship" to Nottinghamshire and that he considered the deal "quite ridiculous".

Yet Fulton considered this to be his last card of a bad hand and if Kent were to win the championship title he felt it better to have five per cent chance of chasing 420 in 70 overs than no chance at all.

Yet there was a certain amount of irony when former St Lawrence favourite, Mark Ealham - the man Fulton had show the door at the end of 2003 - pocketed the catch that clinched the championship winners' pennant.

Within a week and following another disappointing defeat to Sussex at Hove, Fulton was penning his resignation letter having played his final hand as captain.

With his man-management skills and leadership undermined and his form at a low ebb, Fulton opted to fall on his sword saying he could no longer take the team to where he wanted in claiming he was losing influence on and off the field.

In years to come Fulton may rue the deal with Nottinghamshire, inserting Sussex after winning the toss at home and failing to polish off Warwickshire and Hampshire when well placed, but such is the lot of captaincy.

Only time will tell if his four-year, trophy-less stint of leadership is remembered as a brave one, but it would be wrong to make Fulton the scapegoat for what was ultimately another season of collective underachievement.

The first debilitating blow to Kentish title hopes came at The Mote in June when an ECB pitch panel deemed the wicket unfit for first-class cricket after Fulton's men had rolled over a poor Gloucestershire outfit in barely two days.

Kent were duly docked eight points and though the punishment appeared too steep for the alleged crime, it ensured the Kent would play catch up cricket for the remainder of the campaign.

It would also be amiss not to trumpet the success stories of 2005, as there were several.

For once all of Kent's close-season signings proved a success led by the South African influence of Hall, Kemp and Kolpak signing Martin van Jaarsveld.

Hall took 40 championship wickets in 11 games and scored 538 runs at an excellent average of 38, while Kemp's modest return of 11 wickets was masked by his 527 runs from eight games including a match-winning century at Guildford - a dramatic win that proved the high-point of the summer.

Van Jaarsveld hit the ground running in his first summer of a three-year contract and, despite tailing off, still finished with 1,198 runs to deserve his county cap.

Overlooked for Ashes duty, Rob Key kept his name in the England frame by heading the averages with 1,556 runs at 59.85, missing only one game despite niggling injuries.

His stylish strokeplay was complimented by that of by Darren Stevens, the former Leicestershire man who proved a revelation in hitting four centuries in a career-best aggregate of 1,277 runs.

One of four championship ever-presents, Stevens raced past 1,000 runs for the first time to finish with an average of 49, caught magnificently and bowled tidily to win his county cap and the player-of-the-season award to boot.

Agonisingly, Matt Walker finished seven runs short of the four-figure milestone and Fulton accumulated 833, while veteran Min Patel chipped in with an excellent 487 runs despite often batting at eight or nine in the order.

Late summer cameos from Neil Dexter caught the eye and earned the South African-born British passport holder a staff contract for 2006, while Amjad Khan scored important runs toward season's end.

Niall O'Brien's chirpy contributions behind the stumps led to a decent return of 51 dismissals in his 13 appearances, but he would have liked a few more than his batting aggregate of 429.

Ashes duty restricted Geraint Jones to just three appearances, taking 13 victims he notched a disappointing top score of 36 in his 101-run personal tally.

As for the bowling, another of the new recruits Simon Cook bagged 41 wickets in his first full season since moving from Middlesex, yet some observers believe he may do even better as first or even second change, rather than the new ball role Fulton marked out for him.

With Saggers out of sorts, Khan stepped up to the plate to lead the pace attack and with growing maturity and control fully deserved his 55 wickets at 28 apiece.

He was just pipped as leading championship wicket-taker by the outstanding Patel, who came back from the spinal surgery of 2004 to bowl with more flight and guile than ever in taking 59 scalps at a decent cost of 27.56 each.

Patel also appeared in all 16 games, ensuring the former England left-armer will win another full contract for an 18th year on the staff, but that will only be bad news to the aspirations of James Tredwell and Rob Ferley.

Tredwell took only three wickets in his two appearances and Ferley failed to make a four-day run out and may yet opt for a change of club in order to pursue his career.

Sadly, not everyone on the staff made progress, particularly in the seam bowling department where David Stiff, Simon Cusden and Alamgir Sheriyar, in his final year with the county, failed to make an impact.

Robbie Joseph came in for a nervous debut in the final game while Michael Carberry cut a forlorn figure after failing to make a single championship appearance.

A naturally gifted player and brilliant fielder, he too would be well within his rights to seek a move elsewhere in search of regular first team opportunities.

Former England Under-19 batsman Joe Denly struggled to recover from an unfortunate championship debut on that infamous Maidstone pitch, while all-rounder Matt Dennington was surprisingly dropped after his third and best performance of the season.

The summer ended with talk of reduced budgets, playing staff cut backs and belt-tightening in readiness for a 2006 campaign when parochial Kent will do battle with free-spending Hampshire, cash-rich Sussex and Test-hosting clubs Lancashire, Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire, Middlesex and Durham.

So, for whoever takes over the Kent captaincy next summer, the reality is the job just got a whole lot harder!

Mark Pennell's one-day season review