Kent Cricket’s new Head Coach Jimmy Adams is hoping to be in a position to announce the club’s new overseas signing within the next week.

The Jamaican is closing in on his potential target that would be at the St Lawrence Ground in time for the opening fixture against Yorkshire on April 5th and until the end of the season.

Signing an overseas star has been high on Adams’ wishlist since agreeing to be Kent’s new Head Coach and it looks like the work he has been putting in on this signing since before Christmas could finally be about to bare fruit:

“I’d like to think by the end of this week, or by the early part of next week we’ll have it buttoned down. Basically, we have an outline of what the squad should look like come the first game of the season against Yorkshire.”

“We are not that far off the busy part of the preparation phase and it would be nice from my point of view, a clear view of what the squad will be looking like for the first few weeks of the season.”

One man that has been linked with a move to county cricket is former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, however it seems unlikely that he will be moving to Canterbury anytime soon:

“He is a great player. There are no two ways about it! They don’t come much better than Ricky Ponting and I read the other day that he was contemplating county cricket.”

“If you could get a player of that class and not just for the runs that he would score, but for the standards that people like that impose, it would be a huge signing. It could be something we dream about and if we could get someone of that quality it would be fantastic.”

Bringing in the right man for the club, both on and off the field has been a high priority for Adams and despite the Indian Premier League restricting the amount of names available, the Kent Head Coach believes there are still quality signings out there:

“There is a hell of a lot of pride from people that play at elite level and what we need here is some stability. After the results we’ve had here in the past few years, if we can find some stability in the selection process, I think it would be of tremendous value.”

“It’s been difficult getting people in because of the IPL, but it’s a difficulty every county has faced over the last couple of seasons. In one sense, the IPL takes quite a few players off the market, but everyone faces that problem.”

“International commitments have long since spilled over into the county season, so the whole concept of an overseas player has to be more flexible.”

Meanwhile, it seems certain that the club will announce the signing of an experienced opening batsman within the next few days.

With Daniel-Bell Drummond away with the England Under 19’s side in Australia at the start of the season and Joe Denly having left for Middlesex, a new man will be brought in to bolster the squad, but won’t be travelling with the side when they head off for their pre-season training camp in Antigua on Wednesday.