Darren Stevens was full of praise for Kent County Cricket Club at the launch event for his 2016 Benefit Year.

Stevens has served Kent with honour for more than a decade now, having left home-county Leicestershire and joined the club after the 2004 season.

In that time, the all-rounder has become one of the most respected and feared players on the county circuit, scoring nearly 24,000 runs and picking up more than 500 wickets in his career so far.

His ability to turn matches with both bat and ball has made him a cult hero at Canterbury, and a real favourite with fans of all ages.

As ever, the 39-year-old was keen to deflect the praise away from himself, however, when KSN caught up with him at the launch event of his benefit year.

“The big thing for me is that I’ve been honoured with a benefit at Kent, and I can’t thank Kent enough – a massive thanks to them”, he said.

“If you look at the beneficiaries in general, all over the country, it’s a massive honour that people get awarded benefits, so to be awarded a benefit at Kent, which is such a prestigious club… I’m honoured and I’m so lucky to be awarded that, so a massive, massive, massive thanks to Kent.”

‘Stevo’ also spoke about his joining the club nearly 12 years ago now, and how then-Kent skipper David Fulton had his job cut out to sell the signing to the Kent Cricket Committee.

“I sent my text or email or letter out to everybody, saying that I’d been released from Leicester,’ he explained.

“We met in the Abbots Barton [hotel in Canterbury], he asked me if I’d be interested, and as I said – I’m a middle order batter, I whack it a little bit, bowl a little bit of ‘dibbly-dobbly’ [medium-pace]!

“So it was like: “how do you get that across to people?” It’s exactly how you say it! That is it. I whack it a little bit. I bowl a little bit of ‘dibbly-dobbly’, as all the Sky boys say!

“But the big thing is I’m out there to win. I want to win games, I want to compete and that is it.”

Though he turns 40 next month, there’s no doubt that Stevens has the ability to win games for Kent with bat and ball for some time to come.

Pictures supplied by PSP Images.