KENT captain David Fulton has defended his decision to sit out the county’s troubled Twenty20 Cup campaign.

The club skipper was roundly criticised for taking up a Sky Sports commentary stint rather than follow his side’s disappointing tilt at qualification. But the 32-year-old batsman has made clear his decision to sit out Kent’s brief cup run was taken with club authorisation and, in his view, with the team’s best interests at heart.

Whilst conceding that Spitfires made elementary mistakes throughout their five southern group matches, Fulton says his absence from the Rose Bowl qualification decider ultimately made little or no difference.

He said: “I made the decision to withdraw from Twenty20 because I wasn’t convinced that I actually got into our best side for that cricketing format. At this stage in my career my strengths aren’t trying to bash the ball out of the park, so I decided our best chance of winning was to not stand in the way of the likes of Carberry, Loudon or Denly.

“It was a conscious decision to withdraw, I ran it past the powers that be and appointed Andrew Symonds as our cup captain. My decision to go to two of the cup games and not the others was part of a three-week schedule I put to our coaches well ahead of the Twenty20.

“It involved getting rid of my fitness niggles, getting over a bout of sickness, playing some second team games and also the match against Sri Lanka. As we saw down at Worcester when I had to miss out after injuring my hand, I made no difference to the side being there and watching from the sidelines.

"The bottom line is I do care, whether I’m at home or at the game. I’m at a stage in my career where I’m not insecure in my job, I just wanted to see us move forward and win. All my decisions and motivations in that regard were taken in the best interests of Kent cricket and my schedule was agreed with the coaching team.

“I had never planned to go to the Rose Bowl and wasn’t playing the next day, so it was a simple decision to make when Sky asked me to go and commentate on the Worcester and Glamorgan game.”

Responding to claims Kent’s hosting of Twenty20 games could be improved, he added: “We share some of the sentiments and understand some of the criticisms of the supporters. We don’t want to see traffic jams and long beer queues at Kent’s cup games either, because it’s important we entertain people on and off the field.

“As players we try and do our bit on the field and the club are working really hard off the field to make sure, that when people come to Kent, they have a great time and want to come back. We’re hugely committed to that.”

Fulton agreed that, for the second season running, Kent’s Twenty20 tactics were found wanting.

“We haven’t got the game mastered as yet. Batting wise we’ve gone too big, too early and we’ve been found out because we don’t have a nailed-on ‘at the death bowler’.

“We haven’t got, with the exception of ‘Symmo’, a truly international-class one-day batsman. But we do have some fine young players and those guys may need time to sort out their own games in one-day cricket."