By Glenn Pearson
Kent have issued a hands off warning to Surrey after the county continue in their pursuit of captain Rob Key.
The Kent skipper is believed to be a target for Surrey cricket manager Chris Adams, who has also acquired the signature of Worcestershire wicketkeeper Steven Davies and off-spinner Gareth Batty in a bid to reinvigorate the Brown Caps.
But Kent are determined to keep a captain that has led them back to Division One of the County Championship at the first time of asking.
Graham Johnson, Kent’s chairman of cricket, firmly rebuffed any notion that the 30-year-old would be leaving St Lawrence, but indicated there was some truth in the rumours that Surrey have expressed an interest.
“We are well aware of the rumours, some of it is fact but a lot of it is fiction, but the underlying thing is Rob is under contract,” he told Kent on Sunday. “Rob is a great player and a great captain, you expect people like that to get offers. That’s a compliment, but what is not a compliment is when counties do things when they know players are on contracts.”
Surrey had earlier this season been keen on signing vice-captain Martin van Jaarsveld, but the South African turned them down to remain at St Lawrence. Kent hope Key will follow suit and hope to offer him a new contract as his current one expires at the end of next season.
Johnson said: “There is a positive vision about where the club is going to be in the future and we want Rob to be a part of it, same as we wanted Martin van Jaarsveld and Geraint Jones, who you make an integral part of your set-up.
“Rob is on contract until the end of next season and we are talking to him about hopefully extending that contract.”
While Kent hope to keep their much valued captain, attention will now turn towards who the county will bring in to boost their ranks as they return to the championship’s top tier.
With Ryan McLaren and Justin Kemp expected to depart at the end of the summer to reignite their international ambitions with South Africa, youngsters such as Sam Northeast and Alex Blake are expected to play a more important part.
The club missed out, or chose not to pursue their interest in Warwickshire seamer Naqash Tahir, Worcestershire bowler Chris Whelan or all-rounder Jim Allenby, who have all signed deals with their counties or moved on.
Johnson said the club’s cricket committee looked at the players out of contract in the summer and felt there wasn’t anybody available that could help improve the squad.
“We wanted to qualify whether some of the youngsters could step up and made a decision having looked at it, there wasn’t anyone out there that we thought was any better than what we have got,” he said. “The market has been driven up by certain things the ECB have done, so the value for money argument wasn’t there.”
POSTED: 20/09/2009 09:00:00
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