Kent Cricket have confirmed that New Zealand International Matt Henry will no longer be joining the Club for the first seven County Championship matches of 2020.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and disruption to the official start of the 2020 county cricket season, both the Club and player have decided to cancel plans which would have seen Henry return to Kent for a second time.

Kent’s Director of Cricket, Paul Downton, said: “Once the decision was announced by the ECB that there would be no cricket until at least the end of May it became inevitable the Matt would not be returning to Kent this season.

“The Club continues to enjoy a good relationship with Matt. He has many friends here and the overwhelmingly positive feedback we received when we announced the he would return in 2020 is a measure of Matt himself: he’s a fantastic person on and off the cricket field.

“We’d like to thank Matt for his understanding in difficult circumstances.

“Hopefully another opportunity will arise in the near future which will allow him to join us once again.”