SPORT Work ethic impresses Walker Kent cricket

Kent Cricket head coach Matt Walker has hailed the work ethic of the players who have spent most of their winter at home.

Around half of the Kent squad remained behind, including Harry Podmore, Alex Blake, Imran Qayyum, Adam Rouse, Calum Haggett, Adam Riley, Matt Milnes, Sean Dickson and Ivan Thomas, who is recuperating from knee surgery.

Five of that group – Blake, Riley, Podmore, Milnes and Haggett – are now in Paarl, South Africa, where they will be joined by the rest of the squad for Kent’s pre-season training camp next month.

Walker admits the demands on cricketers in the close-season are a lot different than when he was at his peak. Then players often had to take on work outside of cricket in the winter.

He said: “Before the introduction of 12- month contracts, you weren’t paid in the winter. There was no expectation of you as a player. No one was around to do the coaching, that was the way it was.

“Clubs would wave you off in September and you’d have to find other jobs to make ends meet.

“These days the players are paid 12 months of the year so there is more expectation both from the club and from themselves, to maintain their own high standards.

“The boys who stayed behind have worked really hard, if anything the challenge has sometimes been making sure they don’t do too much.

“They’re all so keen to practise and improve and that’s the modern day cricketer. There hasn’t been a single session where I’ve walked out and thought ‘That was a rubbish one’.”

The bulk of the Kent squad will join up with the quintet already in Paarl on March 4. The camp will last 12 days culminating in two one-day games against Sussex, who are also in Cape Town at that time.

Walker explained: “It made sense to go to Paarl, it’s where AD (assistant coach Allan Donald) lives so he’s been able to speak to people face to face.

“There’s a good link with Stellenbosch University where they have some great facilities.

“It’s different to what we’ve done in the past. This is more of a training camp incorporating everything, batting, bowling and fielding because a lot of their fitness work has been done.

“The first half will be more redball focused and the second half more white ball focused. The games against Sussex aren’t part of any competition it’s just that we cross over.”

Kent fast bowler Fred Klaassen helped the Netherlands finish runners- up in the Oman quadrangular T20 tournament which also featured Scotland, Ireland and the host country.

Klaassen, 26, took 2-38 against Scotland, 1-26 against Oman and career best figures of 3-31 against Ireland in Al Amarat as the Dutch came second to Scotland.