Kent batsman Brendan Nash is in the process of becoming a Kolpak signing after being overlooked by the West Indies.

The 35 year old left handed batsman last played Test cricket for the West Indies in June 2011 against India and signed for Kent the following year, playing the whole of last season as an overseas signing.

However, things have changed for Nash over the past six months with Kent in the process of having him registered as a Kolpak signing, meaning they can sign an overseas player should they wish and for Nash it means he brings down the curtain on his international career.

Born in Attadale in Western Australia, Nash qualified to play for the West Indies as his father was born in Jamaica, but after 21 Tests, he was frozen out by the current group of selectors and now is working his way through the system of becoming a Kolpak player:

“It’s a process unfortunately I have to go through since returning to Kent. We are going through the ECB with that and the process has started.”

“It will mean I can no longer commit to any sort of international duties which to be honest, I hadn’t heard from that side of things for a while.”

“I didn’t go back and play in Jamaica for the domestic season which started about a month ago and I had a feeling this Kolpak option was going to come up, so I decided not to venture over to the Caribbean.”

“It’s a forced retirement in terms of the West Indies side of things, nothing to do with what’s happening at Kent.”

The batsman went on to tell KSN how he was disappointed with the way things had turned out with the West Indies as he felt he still had much to offer:

“Certainly last season with the season I’d had at Kent and even before I left the Caribbean domestically I think I was third in the runs when I left to come to Kent.”

“I didn’t get a call up for any team, so it was disappointing to finish the way I did and even towards the last few Tests I played, I didn’t play as well as I would have liked, but I felt like I was making strides as vice-captain and as a senior voice.”

“It was disappointing, but they’re doing alright now, so I can’t hold that against the playing group, but I’m sure things could have been handled a little bit better off the field, but then which cricketer hasn’t said that!”

Now back at Kent for their pre-season preparations, Nash is slowly getting used to the less than spring like weather, but went on to explain how he has been keeping busy back in Australia over the winter months here:

“It’s good to be back at Kent. I went back to Brisbane for the winter and haven’t played a lot of cricket back in Australia.”

“I did a little bit of coaching at the club side that I used to play at and played the odd game here and there. That kept me on my toes having some competitive cricket and gave me the chance to learn about coaching whilst trying to build first class cricketers over there and that’s something I enjoyed as it was challenging.”

“Our coaching staff over here are really good and are always responsive to questions that you ask them, so have helped me put into practice things they have told me. It was a good six months as I put a few things into practice that we do here at Kent.”

“It’s not something I thought I’d really be interested in, but I must admit it grew on me, so maybe in the future you never know what will happen.”

With a big season lying ahead for Kent, Nash admitted the main aim was for the side to win promotion back to Division One of the County Championship, whilst scoring lots of runs personally, but was also looking to play more of a role with the ball in his hand:

“I’ve been delving into the spin for the last couple of years. At the latter stages of your career you get to see what else you can do and I’ve been working with it the best I can.”

“It’s slowly coming along, it has its’ ups and downs as most things do, but if it can help the team in any way then I’ll keep working on it for sure.”

“Whether that be in the middle or in the nets, that’s what I’ve got to do, but I’ve really enjoyed having a bowl.”

Having had time to settle back in with the squad, Nash believes the side have the perfect chance to gain promotion in the Championship whilst competing for silverware in the shorter forms of the game with such good youngsters coming through the system:

“Hopefully we don’t have that second year syndromes as last year was relatively a new squad that had been put together.”

“This year we know each other that little bit better, we can gel that little bit more and go from there.”

“There are some real talented players at the club and if we play to our potential, then anything is possible.”

Kent play their first home pre-season fixture against Surrey beginning on Tuesday with more details available at www.kentcricket.co.uk

Picture supplied by www.sarahansellphotography.com