COACH wants to Lose ‘nearly men’ tag

Head coach Matt Walker wants to oversee a new dynasty of domination at Kent and believes everything is in place to deliver it.

Walker replaces Jimmy Adams at the helm this season and claims it’s time for Kent to get over their ‘nearly men’ tag of recent years and bring the glory days back to Canterbury.

He said: “That is exactly what we’ve been trying to get through to the guys. I think we have been an improving side with huge amounts of talent.

“It’s been said about Kent for a long time – lots of talent, get close, put in some good performances, get closer, but don’t quite get over the line.

“The challenge for me and the group is to become a championship winning side, not just this year but to go forward and create an era of success.”

He added: “We have ingredients to do that. We have got the talent, now it’s about taking that step over the line and saying we’re here to win.

“How we do that has been put in place over the winter. We are trying and turn us into a tougher, more resilient, ruthless, winning side.

“Sometimes it doesn’t take much, just a bit of luck here or there but we don’t want to rely on that. We want to make sure we are the team in control of games and winning big moments in the season.”

Walker – whose team open their Division 2 Championship campaign against Gloucestershire at Canterbury on Friday (11am) – said this season was the time for Kent’s young crop of talent to deliver.

He said: “I see great potential in the side and now’s the time to turn it into silverware. A lot of these guys have been around a while now, they are not potential good players, they are good players. You can use (youth) as a bit of a get out. We have got a great balance, a lot of quality, experience, knowledge – we’ve got it, everything is there.”

Kent missed out on promotion last season, despite finishing second, but Walker claimed: “Last year we were good enough to go up in any other year and it gives us great confidence to know we can do it.

“This year will be tougher in fourday, we have Notts back down, Durham, Sussex and Derbyshire have reinforced, Northants are a talented side. There are some good sides, all desperate to go up.”