Kent batsman Sam Northeast will jet off to Australia next week for the winter and will link up with Brendan Nash for some advice.

The 23 year old opener found himself down the pecking order at the start of last season and was demoted to the second eleven with Middlesex’s Scott Newman drafted into to open the batting alongside captain Robert Key, but the weight of runs scored by Northeast for the second string saw him return to the first eleven for the final eleven County Championship games.

In fact, Northeast ended the season as the county’s top run scorer in the longer form of the game, amassing 969 runs at an average of 57.00 in just 19 innings.

Ending the season in good form in all forms of the game, Northeast has spent the past month with his feet up, but told KSN how he is looking forward to getting back to hitting some balls down under:

“It’s been nice having a break and the past month has gone quite quickly with me not really doing that much. I’ve been slowly been getting back in the gym with Pete Kelly.”

“I’m off to Brisbane on Tuesday to go and play club cricket and won’t be back until the end of February. The facilities out there sound pretty good and I’ll be playing grade cricket, so it should be good fun.”

With Sam Billings playing in Adelaide over the winter, Northeast said there is a chance the pair could meet up, but was looking forward to spending some time working on his game with Kent’s overseas signing for the past summer, Brendan Nash:

“Brendan has played in that same league as I’ll be playing in over in Brisbane. I’m actually playing on the sunshine coast, so Brendan and I will probably do a bit of work here and there when he’s free and not running around after his kids!”

“James Tredwell has been out there before working with this guy called Brad Murphy and he said he enjoyed it and benefited from it, so I’m looking forward to it.”

“Being the off-season, you have got to work on your game, try and introduce a few new things. Myself and Jimmy Adams have chatted about areas that we think I can improve on.”

“Hopefully I can find a few people to work with and get fit for when I come back. Winter can be an exciting time as you can push yourself and see how far you can get.”

“Brendan is a great man to talk to and use him as a sounding board. I’m hoping to have a good few one to one sessions with him.”

Northeast was appointed captain for Kent’s game against South Africa back in the summer, giving him a taste for leading the side with some spectators suggesting he could one day replace Rob Key as skipper, but the former England Under 19 international believes the current captain will keep the role for some time to come:

“I’d be amazed if Keysey wasn’t captain next year. Everyone has really enjoyed having him as captain over the past few years and he along with Jimmy Adams have given us a really good platform.”

“It’s something down the line I would like to do. The South Africa game was a great experience, so it will be something that I keep in mind for sure.”

Finally, Northeast admitted he is still struggling to come to terms with losing the Footballer of the Year award to Key at the club’s Player of the Year awards night, losing a keepy uppy head to head:

“It’s been wiped from my mind and I have no recollection of that ever happening! It’s always hard to get over big defeats like that!”

Picture supplied by Sarah Ansell. To see more of Sarah’s pictures visit www.sarahcanterbury.com