Kent’s Chief Executive Jamie Clifford said he is delighted at how well supported the game with India was on Friday despite poor weather.

The scheduled fifty over game with the World Chmapions had to make way for a Twenty 20 game instead with heavy rain in Canterbury throughout the day forcing the start time to be moved back from 2:30pm to 7:30pm.

A sell-out crowd of around 7,000 fans packed into the St Lawrence ground at Canterbury for the showpiece occasion which saw Kent beaten by just five runs and Clifford told KSN how pleased he was that the fans had been so patient during the delays:

“It’s been a great night for the club. We had our last off-field team meeting earlier in the week and we said it was a great opportunity for the club to show off.”

“All of our hospitality boxes were sold, all the hospitality lounges were full, we had a packed ground and we had a great opportunity to show off what we can do and I think we did that in some style.”

“It’s thanks mainly to the groundstaff as at about 5 o’clock and with the crowd having been in the ground since about twelve it was looking a bit dicey, but the groundstaff pulled out all the stops and got a game on.”

Clifford was also full of praise of the side after they almost pulled off a shock victory against a side that included stars such as Rahul Dravid and MS Dhoni:

“What a treat it was to have a Twenty 20. Yes it was disappointing to come up a bit short, but these are the World Champions we are talking about. What a story it would have been if we could have got over the line, but I think our guys can be pretty proud of what they have achieved.”

“I think we can be proud of what we have achieved as a club as a sell-out under the floodlights doesn’t get much better.”

With batsman Joe Denly linked with a move away from the club as his contract is up this summer, Clifford stated his desire to keep the 25 year old at Kent:

“I want Joe to be at Kent in 2012. We know he is a quality player and he proved that against India. The Kent public want to see Joe playing for Kent and scoring the runs he did like the hundred he got.”

“We want to see more of that from him and let’s hope he is still here next year.”

A security alert at the end of the game saw the St Lawrence ground evacuated by the police and the bomb squad called in to investigate suspicious activity.

Two earlier incidents throughout the afternoon in Canterbury had led to traffic chaos in the city and a heightened state of alert at the cricket ground with security much tighter than usual.

Speaking just before the ground was evacuated with players and staff forced to leave their belongings and cars inside the security cordon, Clifford praised the effort from all concerned despite the fears of something interupting the cricket:

“We are hooked into the local police network and we had very full awareness of what was going on. I can’t talk too much more than that really, suffice to say we were fully briefed and aware, and with 7,000 people in the ground we had a responsibility to make sure they came in and out of the ground safely.”

“It’s always a big concern for any organisation to keep people safe and despite we wanted to win the game, our biggest concern has to always be people’s safety.”

With the new facilities and floodlights at the St Lawrence Ground, it was great to see around 7,000 enthusiastic fans packed into Canterbury and Clifford was thrilled to see so many fans out in force:

“It was tremendous to see so many here and using our great facilities. It was also good to see they were being enjoyed by an audience that isn’t necessarily here week in, week out and I hope they think that Kent will be a great place to go and watch cricket, they’ve had a great night and want to come back in 2012.”

“There are still a few games left this season and Bank Holiday Monday sees Derbyshire visit and I imagine we’ll have a big crowd for that too in the sunshine.”

To book tickets for Kent’s game against Derbyshire on Bank Holiday Monday, visit www.kentcricket.co.uk