NO PLACE FOR PACEMAN IN CHAMPIONSHIP CLASH

Kent cricket

Speculation continues to intensify about the reasons for Matt Coles’ absence from the Kent team.

The 26-year-old all-rounder has not played for the first team since the Specsavers County Championship Division 2 game against Glamorgan at Cardiff, which finished on June 22.

He has subsequently been left out of the county’s last three Natwest T20 Blast games against Middlesex, Sussex and Essex, plus championship matches against Derbyshire and Essex, the latter of which began at Chelmsford on Sunday.

Kent revealed last week that Coles had been made ‘unavailable for selection due to an on-going employer/ employee matter’ but have made no further comment.

However, a story in Saturday’s Times newspaper claimed that he has been left out because of ‘unprofessional behaviour.’

If true, it would not be the first time Coles – Kent’s leading wicket taker this season – has fallen foul of management as a result of his off-the-field conduct.

In February 2013 Coles and Durham’s Ben Stokes were sent home from an England Lions tour of Australia for persistent late-night drinking. The pair had previously been given a written warning as to their conduct by the team management.

The Kent man has already had one enforced lay-off this season when he was banned for two championship games by the ECB for ‘throwing the ball at or near a player, umpire or official in an inappropriate and dangerous manner.”

The incident happened during a championship game against Glamorgan at Canterbury in May and was a Level 2 breach of the ECB’S disciplinary code.

The breach triggered an automatic suspension because he had accumulated 12 penalty points from the ECB within a two-year period. Coles was previously reprimanded for a Level 1 breach in August 2014 and a Level 2 breach in September of the same year.

Coles made his Kent debut in 2009, but left for Hampshire in 2013 only to return after completing just one year of a three-year contract. A club statement issued by Hampshire claimed the player had not “settled as he, or we, would have liked.”