Walker welcomes director of cricket

Kent cricket

Matt Walker believes that having a director of cricket will ease his workload as Kent Cricket’s head coach.

Walker thinks that the creation of a director of cricket role will free him up to focus what is happening on the field rather than getting too bogged down with what is happening off the pitch.

It has been widely reported that the county have turned to former player Paul Downton to take on the role.

Downton, a wicketkeeper for Kent in the late 70s, moved to Middlesex in 1980 where he won 30 England caps.

He was managing director of England Cricket between 2013-2015.

Walker said: “The perfect structure, for me, in a county team is with a director of cricket and a head coach with his coaching staff underneath that.

“It will take a lot of pressure off me with the stuff that you find yourself getting tied up with like recruitment, player contracts, planning for preseason trips, dealing with media, dealing with agents.

“I will still be part of it but it will be someone to support that and take some of the workload off your hands and have another view of how we go about things.”

Jason Gillespie joined Kent on a short-term basis as assistant coach in 2017 after Allan Donald had trouble getting a work permit.

Once Gillespie left he was not replaced meaning Walker’s responsibilities were stretched even more than before.

Walker said: “Last year with no assistant coach, we made the decision after Jason left us the money that we were going to use to get another coach we used on a second overseas player for the T20. I found that I was doing a head coach role, assistant coach and also a bit of director of cricket.

“One minute you are slinging to the guys trying to work on their skills and the next minute you are trying to find time to speak to the players about whatever it might be, then you have to speak to agents and think about player recruitment and then a few other things.

“It was a bit of a rollercoaster trying to fit everything in and trying to sit back and have time for the players and even just talk things through.

“It will certainly help me and the players. It gives the link between the coaching staff and the committee a bit more of a natural link.

“It’s always good to have expertise and another opinion and you can talk things through. It will only be a good thing.”

‘It will take a lot of pressure off me’