Kent County Cricket Club in 2008 explained

Club:	Kent County Cricket Club
Season:	2008
Coach:	Graham Ford
Captain:	Rob Key
Overseas:	Yasir Arafat
Ground:	St Lawrence Ground, Canterbury Nevill Ground, Tunbridge Wells County Ground, Beckenham
Comp1:	County Championship
Comp1 Result:	8th, Division One (relegated)
Comp2:	Friends Provident Trophy
Comp2 Result:	Runners-up
Comp3:	Natwest Pro40
Comp3 Result:	4th, Division Two
Comp4:	Twenty20 Cup
Comp4 Result:	Runners-up
Most Runs:
Most Wickets:
Most Catches:
Most Dismissals:
Prevseason:	2007
Nextseason:	2009

In 2008, Kent County Cricket Club competed in Division One of the County Championship, the South-East Division of the 50-over Friends Provident Trophy, Division Two of the NatWest Pro40 and the South Division of the Twenty20 Cup. Kent also hosted a three-day first-class match against the touring New Zealanders and a three-day match without first-class status against Leeds/Bradford UCCE, both at the St Lawrence Ground.

Kent were relegated from Division One of the County Championship, finishing second from bottom. They performed more strongly in limited overs cricket, finishing fourth in Division Two of the NatWest Pro40 and reaching the final of both the Twenty20 Cup and the Friends Provident Trophy, where they were defeated by Middlesex and Essex,^{[1] [2]} respectively. Kent had been the defending champions in the Twenty20 Cup.

Squad

Former Pakistan international all-rounder Azhar Mahmood signed a contract with Kent in November 2007 and, having recently applied for British citizenship, he would not count as an overseas player.^[3] South African all-rounder Justin Kemp, who played for Kent in 2005 and 2006, re-signed for the county on a two-year deal in February as a Kolpak player.^[4]

Left-arm spinner Min Patel announced his retirement in February, ending a 19-year career with Kent that included two Test caps for England and a total of 630 first-class wickets.^[5]

Neil Dexter signed for Essex on a one-month load in June and this was subsequently extended.^{[6] [7]} After becoming frustrated at a lack of first XI opportunities, Dexter turned down a new contract at the end of the season and went on to sign for Middlesex.^[8]

Batsman Matt Walker was released in September after 20 years with Kent, and having made his first-team debut in 1992.^[9] Walker went on to sign for Essex.^[10] The 2008 season would also be the second and last with Kent for Yasir Arafat, before he re-signed for Sussex.^[11]

Squad list

• Ages given as of the first day of the County Championship season, 16 April 2008.

Name	Nationality	Birth date	Batting style	Bowling style	Notes
Batsmen
		April 16, 2008	Left-handed
		April 16, 2008	Right-handed
		April 16, 2008	Right-handed
		April 16, 2008	Right-handed
		April 16, 2008	Right-handed		Club captain
		April 16, 2008	Right-handed
		April 16, 2008	Right-handed		Kolpak player, vice-captain
		April 16, 2008	Left-handed
All-rounders
		April 16, 2008	Right-handed		British citizen
		April 16, 2008	Right-handed		Kolpak player
		April 16, 2008	Left-handed		Kolpak player
		April 16, 2008	Right-handed
		April 16, 2008	Right-handed		Overseas player
Wicket-keepers
		April 16, 2008	Right-handed	—
		April 16, 2008	Right-handed	—
Bowlers
		April 16, 2008	Right-handed
		April 16, 2008	Right-handed
		April 16, 2008	Right-handed
		April 16, 2008	Right-handed
		April 16, 2008	Right-handed
		April 16, 2008	Left-handed

County Championship

Matches

Other first-class match

Tour match

Friends Provident Trophy

South-East Division

width=175	Team	width=20 abbr="Played"	Pld	width=20 abbr="Won"	W	width=20 abbr="Tied"	T	width=20 abbr="Lost"	L	width=20 abbr="No result"	NR	width=20 abbr="Points"	Pts	width=20 abbr="Net run rate"	NRR
Kent Spitfires	8	5	0	2	1	11	+0.647
Essex Eagles	8	4	0	3	1	9	+0.310
Middlesex Crusaders	8	3	0	3	2	8	+0.064
Surrey Brown Caps	8	3	0	4	1	7	-0.627
Sussex Sharks	8	1	0	4	3	5	-0.534

Final

NatWest Pro40

Division Two

width=200	Team	width=20	Pld	width=20	W	width=20	T	width=20	L	width=20	N/R	width=20	Pts	width=60	Net R/R
Essex Eagles	8	6	1	0	1	14	+1.479
Yorkshire Carnegie	8	5	1	1	1	12	+0.250
Glamorgan Dragons	8	5	0	3	0	10	+0.113
Kent Spitfires	8	4	0	2	2	10	+1.629
Surrey Brown Caps	8	4	0	4	0	8	–0.444
Warwickshire Bears	8	3	0	3	2	8	–0.242
Leicestershire Foxes	8	1	1	4	2	5	–0.463
Derbyshire Phantoms	8	1	1	6	0	3	–0.892
Northamptonshire Steelbacks	8	0	0	6	2	2	–0.993

Matches

Twenty20 Cup

South Division

Pos	Team	width=20		width=20		width=20		width=20		width=20		width=20		width=20
1		10	8	2	0	0	16	+0.732|- style="text-align:center; background:lightgreen;"|2 || Essex Eagles || 10 || 6 || 3 || 1 || 0 || 13 || +0.937|- style="text-align:center; background:lightblue;"|3 || Kent Spitfires || 10 || 6 || 4 || 0 || 0 || 12 || +0.640|- style="text-align:center;"|4 || Hampshire Hawks || 10 || 5 || 4 || 1 || 0 || 11 || -0.505
5		10	2	8	0	0	4	-0.876|- style="text-align:center;"|6 || Surrey Brown Caps || 10 || 2 || 8 || 0 || 0 || 4 || -0.905

Final

UCCE match

Kent's 3-day match against Leeds/Bradford UCCE in April did not have first-class status.

Statistics

Batting

First-class (County Championship and Tour match)!Player!Matches!Innings!!Runs!!!!!!!!

Martin van Jaarsveld	16	27	3	1,150	133	47.91	60.46	4	7	4	140	6
Joe Denly	17	30	0	905	149	30.16	60.81	2	4	8	128	8
Rob Key	15	25	3	864	178*	39.27	56.21	2	4	2	124	0
Geraint Jones	17	26	4	668	106	30.36	52.43	1	3	3	92	3
James Tredwell	17	28	3	566	123*	22.64	38.50	1	3	3	79	1
Ryan McLaren	16	23	3	464	65*	23.20	47.63	0	2	3	73	0
Darren Stevens	14	21	1	463	127	23.15	65.02	1	1	5	66	5
Justin Kemp	10	17	1	412	102	25.75	56.20	1	3	0	49	3
Yasir Arafat	12	19	5	395	90*	28.21	62.30	0	2	0	53	0
Azhar Mahmood	6	8	2	306	116	51.00	73.20	1	1	0	46	3
Neil Dexter	7	8	0	265	105	33.12	42.74	1	1	0	29	1
Robbie Joseph	15	18	5	118	23*	9.07	42.29	0	0	5	16	0
Martin Saggers	11	16	7	101	33	11.22	34.23	0	0	3	19	0
Matt Walker	6	10	1	94	23	10.44	40.00	0	0	1	9	0
Amjad Khan	6	7	1	46	21*	7.66	33.57	0	0	3	7	0
Alex Blake	1	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Simon Cook	1	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Source: Cricinfo^[12]

List A (Friends Provident Trophy and NatWest Pro40)!Player!Matches!Innings!!Runs!!!!!!!!

Martin van Jaarsveld	16	16	4	907	124	75.58	105.22	4	5	2	85	14
Joe Denly	17	17	2	579	102	38.60	69.84	1	2	1	73	3
Rob Key	16	16	1	543	120*	36.20	80.32	1	3	1	58	4
Darren Stevens	15	13	3	336	119*	33.60	106.66	1	1	2	28	10
Justin Kemp	12	10	1	267	68*	29.66	66.08	0	3	0	21	2
Azhar Mahmood	14	12	0	258	68	21.50	120.00	0	2	0	14	11
Geraint Jones	17	12	2	231	86	23.10	82.79	0	1	0	17	4
Ryan McLaren	15	11	6	222	63	44.40	105.71	0	1	1	14	4
Matt Walker	7	7	0	168	43	24.00	78.50	0	0	0	12	3
Neil Dexter	2	2	1	122	101*	122.00	86.52	1	0	0	7	3
Yasir Arafat	12	5	2	81	27	27.00	117.39	0	0	0	6	2
Simon Cook	13	3	0	44	42	14.66	86.27	0	0	1	5	0
James Tredwell	17	10	6	38	20*	9.50	73.07	0	0	1	1	0
Amjad Khan	3	1	0	4	4	4.00	66.66	0	0	0	0	0
Martin Saggers	1	1	1	3	3*	-	37.50	0	0	0	0	0
Robbie Joseph	10	2	2	3	2*	-	50.00	0	0	0	0	0
Source:Cricinfo^[13]

Twenty20 (Twenty20 Cup)!Player!Matches!Innings!!Runs!!!!!!!!

Joe Denly	13	13	0	451	91	34.69	118.99	0	5	1	44	16
Rob Key	13	13	0	345	52	26.53	133.72	0	1	1	52	5
Azhar Mahmood	13	13	6	294	55	42.00	168.00	0	1	0	23	14
Darren Stevens	13	13	5	267	69	33.37	146.70	0	1	2	21	11
Justin Kemp	11	11	0	201	49	18.27	122.56	0	0	0	10	11
Martin van Jaarsveld	12	11	0	140	32	12.72	121.73	0	0	0	14	1
Yasir Arafat	13	8	2	130	42	21.66	154.76	0	0	0	13	5
Ryan McLaren	13	9	4	63	19*	12.60	143.18	0	0	0	6	0
Geraint Jones	13	11	3	59	28	7.37	100.00	0	0	3	2	2
Matt Walker	3	3	0	20	12	6.66	74.07	0	0	0	0	1
James Tredwell	13	5	4	6	2*	6.00	60.00	0	0	1	0	0
Robbie Joseph	1	1	1	1	1*	-	100.00	0	0	0	0	0
Simon Cook	12	1	1	0	0*	-	-	0	0	0	0	0
Source: Cricinfo^[14]

Bowling

First-class (County Championship and Tour match)!Player!Matches!Innings!Overs!Maidens!Runs!Wickets!!!!!!!

Robbie Joseph	15	27	419.1	87	1,433	55	6/36	9/62	26.05	3.41	45.7	2	0
Ryan McLaren	16	25	400.0	83	1,179	50	6/75	8/90	23.58	2.94	48.0	2	0
Yasir Arafat	12	20	317.4	62	1,105	38	6/86	7/149	29.07	3.47	50.1	1	0
Martin Saggers	11	19	276.5	69	873	24	4/26	5/48	36.37	3.15	69.2	0	0
James Tredwell	17	23	364.4	63	1,226	24	3/35	6/114	51.08	3.36	91.1	0	0
Azhar Mahmood	6	10	147.0	28	404	21	6/55	7/91	19.23	2.74	42.0	2	0
Amjad Khan	6	11	145.1	36	433	21	3/10	6/63	20.61	2.98	41.4	0	0
Martin van Jaarsveld	16	12	77.0	12	220	11	5/33	5/33	20.00	2.85	42.0	1	0
Darren Stevens	14	17	123.0	26	322	10	4/70	4/70	32.20	2.61	73.8	0	0
Matt Walker	6	2	9.0	1	40	1	1/34	1/40	40.00	4.44	54.0	0	0
Rob Key	15	1	2.0	1	2	0	-	-	-	1.00	-	0	0
Neil Dexter	7	1	2.0	0	9	0	-	-	-	4.50	-	0	0
Alex Blake	1	1	4.0	1	17	0	-	-	-	4.25	-	0	0
Simon Cook	1	1	7.0	0	25	0	-	-	-	3.57	-	0	0
Joe Denly	17	4	14.0	2	47	0	-	-	-	3.35	-	0	0
Source: Cricinfo^[15]

List A (Friends Provident Trophy and NatWest Pro40)!Player!Matches!Innings!Overs!Maidens!Runs!Wickets!!!!!!

Yasir Arafat	12	12	101.4	11	479	27	4/29	17.74	4.71	22.5	2	0
Azhar Mahmood	14	14	106.1	7	459	20	4/29	22.95	4.32	31.8	2	0
Ryan McLaren	15	14	101.3	4	525	19	5/46	27.63	5.17	32.0	0	1
Robbie Joseph	10	10	65.5	4	314	16	5/13	19.62	4.76	24.6	0	1
James Tredwell	17	14	89.4	1	478	15	4/32	31.86	5.33	35.8	1	0
Simon Cook	13	12	87.1	4	410	12	3/41	34.16	4.70	43.5	0	0
Darren Stevens	15	11	59.0	3	286	5	2/27	57.20	4.84	70.8	0	0
Amjad Khan	3	3	15.4	1	81	4	2/23	20.25	5.17	23.5	0	0
Martin van Jaarsveld	16	3	12.0	0	81	2	1/26	40.50	6.75	36.0	0	0
Justin Kemp	12	1	1.0	0	12	0	-	-	12.00	-	0	0
Martin Saggers	1	1	6.0	0	43	0	-	-	7.16	-	0	0
Source:Cricinfo^[16]

Twenty20 (Twenty20 Cup)!Player!Matches!Innings!Overs!Maidens!Runs!Wickets!!!!!!

Yasir Arafat	13	13	44.0	0	341	23	4/17	14.82	7.75	11.4	2	0
James Tredwell	13	12	41.0	1	264	16	3/9	16.50	6.43	15.3	0	0
Ryan McLaren	13	13	43.5	0	334	15	3/28	22.26	7.61	17.5	0	0
Azhar Mahmood	13	13	47.5	0	368	15	3/27	24.53	7.69	19.1	0	0
Simon Cook	12	12	46.0	0	379	11	3/21	34.45	8.23	25.0	0	0
Darren Stevens	13	8	16.0	0	140	5	2/29	28.00	8.75	19.2	0	0
Robbie Joseph	1	1	4.0	0	24	2	2/24	12.00	6.00	12.00	0	0
Martin van Jaarsveld	12	1	1.0	0	13	0	-	-	13.00	-	0	0
Source: Cricinfo^[17]

External links

• Kent home at ESPN cricinfo
• Kent County Cricket Club official site

Notes and References

1. http://www.espncricinfo.com/countycricket2008/content/story/362669.html Middlesex crowned champions in thriller
2. http://www.espncricinfo.com/countycricket2008/content/story/365103.html Flower guides Essex to trophy triumph
3. http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/story/321632.html Azhar Mahmood joins Kent
4. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/counties/kent/7232559.stm Kent re-sign South Africa's Kemp
5. http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/story/336752.html?object=18458 Min Patel announces retirement
6. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/counties/essex/7444764.stm Dexter signs loan deal with Essex
7. http://www.espncricinfo.com/countycricket2008/content/story/359734.html Essex extend Dexter loan deal
8. http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/sport/dexter-quits-kent-for-middlesex-a43910/ Dexter quits Kent for Middlesex
9. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/counties/kent/7616442.stm Walker sad at end of Kent career
10. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/counties/essex/7625787.stm Essex sign up Kent veteran Walker
11. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/counties/sussex/7694678.stm Paceman Arafat returns to Sussex
12. http://stats.espncricinfo.com/kent/engine/records/batting/most_runs_career.html?class=4;id=2008;team=1149;type=season Season 2008 - Kent / Records / First-class matches / Most runs
13. http://stats.espncricinfo.com/kent/engine/records/batting/most_runs_career.html?class=5;id=2008;team=1149;type=season Season 2008 - Kent / Records / List A matches / Most runs
14. http://stats.espncricinfo.com/kent/engine/records/batting/most_runs_career.html?class=6;id=2008;team=1149;type=season Season 2008 - Kent / Records / Twenty20 matches / Most runs
15. http://stats.espncricinfo.com/kent/engine/records/bowling/most_wickets_career.html?class=4;id=2008;team=1149;type=season Season 2008 - Kent / Records / First-class matches / Most wickets
16. http://stats.espncricinfo.com/kent/engine/records/bowling/most_wickets_career.html?class=5;id=2008;team=1149;type=season Season 2008 - Kent / Records / List A matches / Most wickets
17. http://stats.espncricinfo.com/kent/engine/records/bowling/most_wickets_career.html?class=6;id=2008;team=1149;type=season Season 2008 - Kent / Records / Twenty20 matches / Most wickets