Kent looking long-term in director search

KENT are planning to appoint a director of cricket to plot their long-term future.

Applications for the post close next Wednesday and chief executive Jamie Clifford said: “If you look at some of the counties who have been successful in recent years, there is a theme there and they seem to have a very decent role in success.

“There is an evolution of our structure and as we want to achieve more, we need more firepower leading and managing the activities of the club.

“The job will be to look at all aspects of cricket operations from age group programmes, to academy, to first team but also looking outward to recruitment and identifying best practice.

“The game is developing with strength and conditioning to analytics and nutrition.We want someone who is alive to the big wide world of cricket and taking those ideas and working them for Kent.”

The director of cricket should ensure that head coach Matt Walker and captain Sam Northeast can concentrate solely on events in the middle.

Clifford added: “They (Walker and Northeast) want to be focused on what happens game-to-game and through the course of the season. There’s a lot of work that goes on around the club to get the players on the field so things like player acquisition and renegotiation of contracts and recruitment of assistant coaches at various times of the year.

“This stuff is really important but the coach and captain can be uncluttered with that stuff and it can go on away from the dressing room.

“They pushed hard for this role and believe it will be a really strong addition to the cricketing staff.We don’t have any preconceived ideas that it has to be a director of cricket with a coaching leaning or a more administration leaning.”