County close on overseas signing

Kent are set to have at least two new faces at pre-season training from Monday. The club are closing in on an overseas signing to bolster the opening stages of their season in the Championship and Royal London One-day Cup while they are also expected to add depth to their squad with the addition of a promising young batsman from a Division 1 club. Another who could appear at Canterbury in the coming weeks is former Yorkshire coach and Australian paceman Jason Gillespie who is reportedly close to becoming Kent’s new interim assistant coach. The club are seeking to appoint a high-profile interim assistant coach as Allan Donald will miss the start of the season due to visa issues. The South African pace legend was named as assistant to new head coach Matt Walker in the new year but it has emerged he will not be given a visa to coach in England until he meets the ECB criteria of a Level 3 coaching qualification. The club were hoping to appoint ‘a high profile assistant coach of international repute’ as early as this week to assist Walker and help prepare the squad on the eve of the new county season, which gets under way with a home championship game against Gloucestershire on April 7. Reports in the national press suggest Gillespie is the favourite, having left Headingley last year after guiding the White Rose County to two County Championship crowns since his arrival in 2012. He left to return to Australia and coached the Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash T20 competition this winter, however he is believed to be seeking a short-term coaching role during the close-season Down Under, which would fit Kent’s opening.