Jimmy Adams is of the belief Kent are blessed with some great talent that just needs nurturing to take them to the next level.

Starting his second year in the Head Coach’s role at the St Lawrence Ground, Adams has overseen a change in culture at Canterbury with senior pros drafted in last winter to add to the burgeoning crop of talented youngsters coming through the system at Kent.

This season could see the emergence of some of that talent with the likes of Sam Northeast and Matt Coles already having secured themselves places in the team in all forms of cricket over the past twelve months.

Add to that, the likes of Daniel Bell-Drummond, Adam Ball, Sam Billings, Adam Riley, Alex Blake, Fabian Cowdrey and Ivan Thomas are all pushing for first team recognition on a regular basis.

With the weather far from ideal in Kent at this time of year, many of the club’s youngsters have headed to warmer climates for the winter and Adams believes it is beneficial for them all to get away as they look to develop their games, but to grow as human beings:

“Quite a lot of the lads are involved in cricket overseas. Most of them had a break in October and November with some of them having gone on to Australia and South Africa.”

“Everyone will assemble here for the first week in March, but those that are still here in England will have fitness programmes and scheduled sessions.”

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing a lot of the guys being away in the winter and for the younger guys, I am a firm believer that at this stage in their lives six months of indoor work wouldn’t be as beneficial as being able to play in a competitive environment.”

“At the end of season debrief, there was an awareness of what areas of their games they needed to work on and focus on. I’d rather they did that with some competitive cricket as well.”

“I think being away from home is a fast track to maturity and I think making decisions for themselves can only be a good thing.”

The coming season could start to see some of the club’s younger players pushing the senior pros for a place in the first eleven and Adams is hoping the club have a crop of players coming through the system that will be able to take the step up:

“We are keeping our fingers crossed and we certainly believe we have some great youngsters capable of playing at this level. Along with the likes of Daniel Bell-Drummond and Adam Ball, we have the likes of Alex Blake, Sam Billings, Sam Northeast, who had a good season last year and Matt Coles.”

“These are guys still in their early twenties, so I’m excited about what we have and the potential strides we could make in the season ahead.”

“We’re hoping to create the best possible environment for them to be able to express themselves.”

“There’s good pressure on us here to keep producing the next Tredwell, the next Key or Coles and develop them in the best way we can.”

Over the coming weeks, visitors to the St Lawrence Ground will see a giant greenhouse erected over the wicket to enable the players to prepare for the season ahead, much like the one that has been used by Essex.

It will enable the players to prepare for the season ahead on grass and Adams is keen to see how it will work out for his squad:

“It’s a novel experience for me and one I’m really looking forward to. I’ve only seen it in pictures and have heard the theory, so I’m really, really quite interested to see how it pans out.”

“Based on what I have been told and the experiences of other people who have used it as players, it will allow us to get some hard work in, so it should be good.”

“There’s only so much you can do indoors and I’m not knocking the Academy facilities, but ultimately players will very quickly want to get to as close to real life conditions as possible.”

“We just have to maximise the time we have with everyone and get them as prepared as we can for the forthcoming season.”

Kent kick off their pre-season campaign with two days of cricket against Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl beginning on Thursday 28th March with two days of cricket against Surrey at Canterbury beginning on Tuesday 2nd April.

Jimmy Adams’ side will then play Cardiff MCCU in a four day game at Canterbury beginning on Wednesday 10th April before kicking off their County Championship campaign away to Leicestershire on Wednesday 17th April.

For more details, visit www.kentcricket.co.uk