Kent Chief Executive Jamie Clifford is hoping 2013 will be a better year for the club after a rain affected last season.

2012 will go down as a year to forget for the finances of Kent County Cricket Club with rain plaguing events on and off the field throughout the summer.

Results on the field didn’t quite go as had been hoped, but it was off the field that Kent were hit the hardest as days were lost to rain, costing the club dearly and that has lead to a consultation period with the threat of redundancies.

No club wants to make cuts to its’ staff and it’s no different at Kent, but the reality of running at a loss for the past year has seen thoughts turn towards a chance of people losing their jobs, with Clifford telling KSN how he hopes to have the matter resolved in the coming weeks:

“We’re not through that yet and things got put on hold somewhat with Christmas, but I imagine we will look at having it all sorted in the next month or so.”

“Now we are back, I don’t want it to drag on.”

Clifford went on to explain that the club were working with the auditors to get the latest financial figures out as soon as possible too, warning members and fans that a loss was on the cards:

“The audit is nearly concluded, although there are just a few bits that needed sorting. Once that is all concluded we will be in a position to make an announcement, but when that will be, I’m not so sure.”

“It might be a month or a little bit longer, but I’m sure it won’t be too long before we make an announcement.”

“I think most people have arrived at the conclusion we will announce a loss. Whether they have had the inside track or not, it was clear last year was a very tricky year, so I don’t think there will be any surprises when the figures are announced.”

“It has been disappointing, but I now need to make sure everything we do this year is positive.”

“There have been plenty of other organisations that were hit by the weather last year, the county show being one of them like us. When you combine last year with three fewer T20’s which we were hugely opposed to, it makes life that bit harder.”

On the field, Kent will spend their pre-season campaign in the county, rather than packing their bags and heading abroad. Last year the squad had a training camp in the West Indies, but Clifford told KSN how Kent were going to be using what can only be described as a large greenhouse for the players to play under at the St Lawrence Ground:

“We will be UK based as it is a slightly later start to the season for us. We have got the university fixture in early April. We’ll also have more time to prepare for our games down here as we start with two away games further up north.”

“Essex used the pitch cover last year. It’s a marquee in effect, although it is transparent, not your traditional white one. It allows the light to get in and has a couple of advantages really, it means you can carry on doing throw downs if it is actually raining at the time and it provides more cover for the whole playing area.”

“Essex found it to be fantastic and that will go up around mid February and will probably stay up until about the end of  March.”

“I’m no expert on these things, but I’m lead to believe it will allow the groundstaff to bring forward preparations a bit. It’s an experiment we are prepared to try and I believe Middlesex will be doing something similar too.”

“I think it is well worth trying, because a lot of the costs involved in overseas trips go on flights and it seems a lot of  money to spend on things like that when you can be spending the money on getting the best out of the preparation period.”

“Overseas pre-season tours have their merits, but for now we will be trying this new approach.”

On matters overseas, Clifford revealed the club were still looking at potential overseas signings, but wasn’t worried that nothing had happened thus far:

“We’re still keeping an eye on the market to see what happens. This time last year Mark Davies wasn’t even on the radar. Jimmy (Adams) is keeping an eye on things and if the right player comes along, we will see what we can do.”

Kent’s pursuit of a potential overseas signing can only happen if Brendan Nash becomes a kolpak player for the years ahead and the Kent Chief Executive told KSN how he was hoping to have all that sorted as soon as the West Indian returned to the country:

“We know what we’ve got to do when he gets back into the country. We can’t do that until he is back here, but once he is, we will get that concluded and sent off to the ECB.”

Next week the club will turn its’ attention towards the launch of the Woolley Stand Appeal with a launch lunch to be held at the Mecure Hotel in Maidstone.

Looking to raise around £4 million to rebuild the stand, Clifford told KSN how he believes it will be an ambitious project, but one he is keen to get started:

“We’re still in the planning phase and still looking at what we are trying to achieve. One thing that is clear, is that we are trying to raise what is a considerable amount of money.”

“I’m very excited about it all getting started. I have been talking with Matthew Fleming about how we approach it. For the launch lunch, we have got quite a few past players coming back, Mark Benson being one that we haven’t seen for a while.”

“It’ll be nice to see him and I’m sure it will be a really nice lunch.”

Meanwhile, Kent captain James Tredwell is away touring with England in India and then will head off to New Zealand, whilst fast bowler Matt Coles has been selected to tour Australia with the England Lions in February.

Both players have been in England’s thoughts for a while now and Clifford told KSN how he was delighted for the pair:

“I’m delighted for both of them. James I think has been particularly patient waiting for his go and the nice thing I think is that he is reliable and has come in and done what James Tredwell does.”

“Matt has done really well, to not only get into the Performance squad, but to then get into the Lions squad. He’s been doing everything right and it’s encouraging the way he is progressing.”

“The nice thing for him is that he is doing everything right to get himself into England honours.”

Finally, the transformation at the St Lawrence Ground at Canterbury continues and Clifford went on to explain how the administration staff were close to completing their move from the old offices at the top of the driveway to the new purpose built building by Sainsbury’s on the ground:

“There’s still quite a lot still to move, especially all the archive. It’s given everyone a real boost being in the nice surroundings with nice meeting rooms.”

“It’s nice to be overlooking the ground and when we do bring in potential sponsors. it’s nice to be able to show them what they are getting involved with.”