Jamie Clifford has backed James Tredwell to be a success at Kent after being appointed captain of the club this week.

Tredwell replaced Key as captain on Monday after the opening batsman had decided his time had come after seven years in the job.

Becomind Kent’s 32nd captain, Tredwell now has the task of leading the side in all three forms of the game, with Chief Executive Jamie Clifford backing the 30 year old spinner to succeed in his new role, however he wanted to praise the outgoing skipper for all his hard work over the past seven years:

“I’m pleased for Treddy, I’m pleased for the club and I’m pleased for Rob actually because I think the way we have done it, we have done right by Rob.”

“We have got a guy that captained the club for seven seasons which is the longest serving captain in professional cricket at Kent. It can’t be underestimated his contribution and he deserves the respect we have given him to reflect properly on the past season.”

“I think he needed the time to reflect, because it is easy to make a knee jerk reaction and he may have concluded that he didn’t want to resign the captaincy.”

“As soon as it became clear he didn’t want to carry on, we started to plan for the future.”

“Rob’s friends and family will know the amount of time and commitment he has given to the Kent cause over the years and we should all take the opportunity to thank him for that contribution.”

“He was very active in the appointment of our Head Coach last year (Jimmy Adams), he was instrumental in the signing of a lot of our signings last winter too and he kind of run the process to make sure we recruited the right people.”

“For that fact, he was always keen to get the house in order before he moved on.”

The process of selecting Tredwell was a short and swift one with Clifford working alongside Graham Johnson and Jimmy Adams to find the best man for the job.

Once the trio had identified Tredwell as their man, they appointed him without delay and Clifford told KSN how he felt they had made the right decision:

“It’s an interesting process, especially when you have had a captain for as long as we have had. We’re not used to replacing our captain and when we looked there were a number of leaders in the broadest sense from within the squad and I hope that will make life easier for James.”

“There are people around that can lead and with that I mean there are people that can help lead the club forward.”

“There are a strong group of senior players that will play a part in leading the club, even if they are not in the captain’s shoes.”

“The process we ran was pretty short and sharp. Graham Johnson fronted it and it was pretty clear once we’d identified James as our captain, it was just a case of what, why and when.”

“I’m delighted for him as he is someone I have known for a long time and it shouldn’t be underestimated the whole Kent homegrown aspect of things.”

“It means a tremendous amount to him and I wish him well because he is a Kent person and he is fiercely proud of that.”

“He is a very popular player and I think the club has made the right selection.”

Sam Northeast’s name was one of those under consideration by the Kent management team, but Clifford reiterated the club’s desire to go for someone they believe will take the club forward over the coming years:

“There’s always choice in who you appoint. We quickly came to a conclusion there was a candidate that was the right person and given where James is at in his career having captained England Lions, it made it a straight forward choice.”

“We didn’t labout over a long list of candidates as we felt we had someone that could lead the club forward and having spoken to James it was clear he wanted to be part of that.”