Rob Key believes he leaves Kent in a good state having decided to retire and says the timing is right.

The 36 year old made the announcement that his almost twenty year career with Kent was to come to an end on Monday, bringing down the curtain on an illustrious career that has seen the talented right handed batsman captain the side to a Twenty 20 Cup victory in 2007, whilst winning 15 caps with England.

Key will always be fondly remembered around the county for being someone that had the interests of the club at his heart, but what statistics will never tell you about is the bloke that donned the whites with pride.

I’ve known Rob for more years than I care to remember and at first, I must admit I found him to be rude, abrupt and bloody hard work. He probably hasn’t changed an awful lot and some junior journalists on the circuit will probably be glad they don’t have to try and work him out.

Standing with his hands in his pockets in the field or his one word interviews can be seen as a sign of arrogance, but Rob’s someone very comfortable in his own skin.

Talk of his retirement have been doing the rounds for years and I remember asking him about it at least three or four times, but the timing is now right and the former skipper explained to me the thought process:

“It’s been on my mind for a while and I’ve been thinking about it for about six weeks, before I went to India with Sky.”

“I’ve always said to myself I don’t want to be just hanging on if there were younger batters around, escpecially as I’d never allowed anyone else that privilege.”

“I think of the likes of Matt Walker, Geraint Jones and Dave Fulton, none of them had the luxury of staying in the side when there were younger guys coming through and they had to either move on elsewhere or retire themselves and I always said to myself that I didn’t want to break that mould.”

“The time became right to move on and for a while now I’ve been thinking about the future and where the opportunities were. From my point of view, the future is better elsewhere other than at Kent.”

Some fans will question why Key is retiring now having ended last season so well, but he explained it wasn’t just about his form with the bat any longer:

“Captaining for as long as I did, I gave it up three of four years ago so I could just enjoy the rest of my career as the body was starting to hurt and standing in the field was beginning to be more and more of a chore.”

“Finishing last season well proved to myself that I could still play the game and actually what might have been hadn’t I captained for so long.”

“It was nice to finish remembering I could play rather than slogging away.”

When any professional sportsman comes to an end of their career, the natural question is to look back at the highlights and I was no different in asking Rob. Here’s what he had to say:

“There are lots of different moments. I guess I was lucky in my career. Every hundred you score and every game you win was special and in the bad times, you cherish those moments a lot more.”

“There was a period of when we did well in adversity that satisfies me. Paul Farbrace was coach, we’d just lost a Quarter Final, we had an inexperienced side and were in the middle of a financial crisis, but I think we won three games on the bounce and as a captain, they’re the moments I look back on fondly.”

“We had nothing really to play for and everyone could be forgiven for throwing in the towel, but we did it and we did it when I guess we had no real right to.”

The one thing most sports people tell me they miss the most is spending time with “the lads” and Keysey is no different:

“I think the dressing room is one thing I will miss. The problem is when you get old in cricketing terms, you’re a different generation to most of the people that you are playing with.”

“Saying that, I probably miss the dressing room from when I was younger. That’s nothing to do with the people now, but it was just a different generation.”

“I won’t miss all the training, but in a way I will miss having a purpose.”

When probed about whether he could ever see a day where he’s back at the club in some coaching capacity, Key was emphatic that he wanted to look at that as a career option, but wasn’t sure it would necessarily be back at Canterbury:

“I don’t know about at Kent and I’m not sure if they’d want me back! I can envisage myself coaching at some stage and wherever that opportunity may lie.”

“I enjoy that part of the captaincy, helping others and as a player and captain that was hard. Trying to help and move people forward was probably what made me do it for as long as I did.”

For these past few seasons some fans have suggested Key’s been doing too much work with Sky and not concentrating on the club, but he insists that’s not the case and he’s always been open about looking to the future:

“I used to be quite aware of the stick I was getting for doing that, but I think this pre-season was the first time I have missed any practice.”

“It’s been nice to have something else going on and for the last few years I’ve been doing both, playing and working with Sky and as most players should be doing, you’ve got to have one eye on the future.”

“I have been very lucky that Sky have used me over the years.”

Giving up the game can be tough for many cricketers and in recent weeks the former hockey player has dug the golf clubs out of the garage and has been tearing up courses across Kent.

Renowned for bending the rules on the golf course, Rob is hoping his newly found love will fill the void of not playing cricket any longer:

“All said and done, the one thing I enjoyed the most was batting and scoring runs and that’s all I ever thought about since I was about four or five.”

“Golf will have to replace that now and keep that part of my brain going. I’m already having complete wars with my golf swing and trying to work out how to hit it.”

“I’ve got a coach down at Princes, a young lad called Alex who’s brilliant and now he’s going to have to take me all the way to the Seniors Tour!”

“The only problem with golf is there are too many rules! Saying that, there are too many rules in cricket and I probably never learnt them all in all the years of being a professional, so god knows how I’m going to keep up with golf rules.”

Key is no stranger to some of the more colourful characters in the cricketing world and counts the likes of Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison and Shane Warne as close friends and he admits he looked to various people for advice before considering retiring:

“I always knew what those guys went through and how hard it was, but I am very fortunate to go out on my own terms. Pretty much all of my mates have now retired, so I’ve always been aware of what they’ve been through and how hard it’s been even for the best of them.”

“The one thing we all love is cricket and I’m sure I will miss it.”

When anyone retires from their job, there’s always a period of reflecting and Key is no different, but he doesn’t believe he will leave the game with many regrets:

“I got plenty of things wrong, but I don’t have any real regrets. The only thing I do look back on and regret is captaining for as long as I did as it was a pretty thankless task by the end and it was to the detrminent of my own game.”

“I’d like to think Kent are now in a better place than from when I took it on again for a second time. They now look like a side that should go on and win things this year now.”

“There are a lot of good young players with over fifty games under their belts and the club is in a pretty good place now.”

“Seeing both Joe Denly and Matt Coles back at the club is something to be proud of.”

As to whether we will see Key back at the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence in the coming weeks:

“I think I’m doing some commentary there soon, so you will all still see me at the ground.”

“Canterbury has a special place in my heart and Kent will always be my club, so I’m sure I will be back.”

With time on his hands and the future ahead of him, Rob is looking forward to spending more time with wife Fleur and kids Aaliyah and Harrison, but confesses it might not be plain sailing:

“Somehow I am managing to sneak off and play more golf now than I used to play cricket at the moment, so my retirement has probably been bitter sweet for Fleur.”

“I’ve been away for about five weeks and then played golf nearly every day since I’ve been back, so I don’t think she thinks anything is any different.”

“I’m probably more grumpy about playing golf than I ever was about playing cricket.”

“I do all the chores at home and shopping, so my wife is very lucky to have me!!!”

Looking from the outside in, Key has come across as pretty hard work and has undoubtedly rubbed a few people up the wrong way over the years, but he admits he isn’t necessarily the person people think he is:

“I was blessed in a way with having a laid back demeanour which has been described as miserable as well, but that generally wasn’t the case.”

Key’s career spanned almost eighteen years in a first class career that yielded almost 20,000 first class runs, but when he looks back it will be the people that he played with that will live long in the memory:

“I got to play with Murali, who became a close friend, Andrew Symonds, Rahul Dravid, those were the days…”

“We had Steve Waugh for a spell and that was extraordinary and to play against Shane Warne as much as I did and for him to become a mate. I’ve had one of the luckiest careers with good mates on and off the field.”

“Some of the Kent lads have been fantastic as well like Dean Headley and having been able to play with one of my best mates in Matt Walker for so long was special.”

“Opening the batting with Dave Fulton and that era will be something I look back most fondly I guess.”

Having hung up his cricket boots one last time, Key would be forgiven for trying to milk it and bringing out a warts and all tale of his life, but he freely admits to me that’s not his thing:

“As much as I speak about cricket and I end up being on TV, I can’t stand the attention in a way and the thought of an autobiography scares me.”

“I can’t see why anyone would ever want to read it apart from my mum! I can’t see me ever doing it.”

One last question from me was about the future of the club without a certain RWT Key on the scorecard and Rob believes he leaves Kent in the safe hands of Sam Northeast and the future is bright:

“We have been building for a while now and with these couple of overseas players, there’s some guys there now with quite a lot of experience.”

“Kent still has one of the best players around in Darren Stevens and probably some of the most young, exciting players around in the likes of Sam Billings, Matt Coles and Daniel Bell-Drummond.”

“I can see these next few years being very special and Kent doing very well.”