Kent’s 4th members’ meeting of the year latest just over 1 hour 45 minutes with more than 60 people in attendance. Kent CCC Chief Executive Paul Millman began by introducing coach John Wright, who went over what he described as a “reasonable” season.

“We consolidated this year.. I am very pleased that what are playing premier league cricket.”

Wright also thanked Chris Stone for his work with Kent 2nd XI and also a group of 17 young players aged between 13-14 and 17-18 receiving training on Wednesday evenings.

Commenting on the recent changes in the club staff, Wright acknowledged that Kent “started the season with an overbalance of batsmen.”

On Wednesday Kent announced that Nigel Llong was being released.

“We’ve tended to back youth. Nigel was unlucky to miss the game at Somerset. We played Alan Wells instead of Nigel – we needed some experience in our batting order with Andrew Symonds away. He (Nigel Llong) is a very, very good one day cricketer, and we have tried to reach an agreement on a one-day situation.”, said Wright.

Paul Millman told the meeting that there had been a “series of very open discussions” and they had achieved “a thoroughly mutual outcome”, stressing “its not been an easy decision but can I assure you that its been a thoroughly balanced discussion.”

Commenting on a question from one member that Nigel Llong might go on to become an umpire, Millman confirmed that this was one of a range of opportunities that Llong was now examining.

John Wright then elaborated on the four new signings which had also been announced on Wednesday. He explained that Kent had agreed contracts with Kristian Adams (a member of MCC Young Professionals who filled the gap left by left arm bowler Tim Wren), James Golding, Amjad Khan (from Denmark, and in whom Sussex had also expressed interest – Khan made his debut last year and is currently completing his studies. He will join Kent from July onwards) and finally James Watson.

The panel was asked whether there was any truth in newspaper reports that Paul Nixon would be signing with Kent. Chief Executive Paul Millman confirmed that they were one of the counties with whom the Leicestershire wicket-keeper was having talks, but said he was unable to speak about the issue further, describing Wednesday’s statements as “untrue”.

Moments later however, captain Matthew Fleming did openly admit that Kent were actively seeking a new wicket-keeper after the departure of Simon Willis.

Paul Millman told the audience that Rahul Dravid, Kent’s new overseas signing, would be available from the start of the season but would miss the last two championship games. Matthew Fleming reiterated that “there is no guarantee that whoever we sign will be with us all year”.

One member asked whether Trevor Ward had resigned from the club or had left on his own accord. The Chief Executive pointed out that it was not a matter of resignation, as technically there was no contract to resign from, however Kent had not offered Ward a new contract, and had discussions with him similar to those they had with Nigel Llong regarding his future playing opportunities with Kent and with other counties.

One long-standing member asked the captain to justify the standard of top-order batting. Matthew Fleming said how he was “very pleased with Ed Smith”, who “could easily be an international cricketer.” He also commended Rob Key for sticking at what had been “a very difficult season”. Fleming also pointed out that Dave Fulton had suffered after having to miss some of the pre-season training in April.

On pitches, Fleming expressed the view that Canterbury was only one of three Headquarters that was “blameless” this season. “The wickets have been so poor that they have encouraged a quicker 40 rather than batting all day. One day we were 103/2 at lunch, when everywhere else there were seven or eight wickets down. We telephoned Lord’s and asked them if they wanted us to declare.”

Regarding the standard of play provided for spectators, Fleming emphasised how the county always strived to play entertaining cricket but would also like to win the championship.

The discussion moved on to Martin McCague’s performance. Matthew Fleming said how he had suffered a “crisis of confidence” two years ago, and “really has done very well to get back to the level he has done.”

“Martin has demonstrated he can still do it. But I Think we have to accept its not going to be the day in, day out performances of old. He will be more sparingly used as he was this year. I think you’ll see next year another step up from this year.”

After an hour and five minutes of questions on the county’s performance on the field, John Wright left to meeting to join a coaching group in the indoor school and Paul Millman moved the discussion onto more practical matters.

“We face a pretty exciting season”, said Millman, going on to mention the opportunity which the club has to stage a floodlit match. Talking about the possiblility of extra promotion for 2nd XI matches at Canterbury, Millman asked the meeting what facilities they would like open on the ground on these days.

One member asked why for the England U19 match at Canterbury, there was little catering or toilet facilities available on the ground despite the sponsorship of the match by NatWest and the attendance of Sky TV, saying it “seemed extraordinary”.

“We opening admit that we got far more people than we expected for this game”, said Paul Millman. Assistant secretary and match manager Bernard Thompson added that the club planned to provide a public address announcer for more second XI games, and that it would be possible to make adjustments to the public address system to make the volume level better all around the ground. The club also said that extra toilets would be made available.

The manager of the catering company Morton’s Fork was also present, along with Marketing Manager Adele Aylwin. It was pointed out that although facilities may be closed early, this is usually due to trading being so low in the two hours beforehand that it is not viable to continue running the service. The average spend per person is 55 pence on food.

One member suggested 2nd XI Schools Sponsorship as a means to encourage more potential new players to attend matches and become involved in the sport.

Paul Millman added that a new switchboard was being installed at the club in an attempt to make it easier to get recorded information.

There was also discussion about floodlit cricket – and the money involved. Paul Millman estimated that floodlits would cost £10,000, a figure that would be underwritten by sponsorship.

Finally he asked those present about how the club could recruit more members, stating how although Kent already have 5/6 thousand more members, this is low considering the 1.6 million people who live in Kent. Year on year Kent naturally lose about 1,000 members.

The meeting ended at 8.45pm – Kent may arrange a similar evening during the pre-season period next year.

- Please note that whilst we believe this is an accurate record of the meeting, it does not constitute any official minutes.