Kent batsman Mike Powell has one main objective this year and that’s to score as many runs as possible for the county.

The 36 year old joined Kent last winter after fifteen seasons with Glamorgan and settled straight into life at Canterbury, scoring two centuries in a season that saw the right handed batsman score 647 County Championship runs at an average of 38.06.

Batting at number five, Powell added that valuable experience to Kent’s middle order as they came close to securing a return to Division One.

With pre-season now well underway and the new campaign just over four weeks away, Powell and his team-mates have been working hard at their fitness levels, although the Welshman admitted he was a little surprised by the weather this week:

“We always try and be as fit as we possibly can and then just do some top ups. Pete Kelly does a terrific job to get us to where we need to be and we’ve done our yoyo tests which measure where you are.”

“Pete reports those tests back to the ECB so they know where everyone is at and this year we have had fat tests to know where everyone is, so there are no hiding places!”

“We were told the other day that we were going to do a bit of fitness outside and I thought we’d be out there for a few minutes, but good old Pete had us running around in the snow.”

“I wouldn’t have minded but I only had my trainers on, so I was slipping all over the place.”

With the weather having improved slightly, the club have taken the players swimming and they’ve finally been able to use the greenhouse on the St Lawrence Ground outfield to full advantage and Powell is glad they are having the chance to get some practice outdoors:

“This pre-season has been like a montage from Rocky IV, we’ve been climbing up hills, running in the snow. It won’t be long before we’re in the freezer punching meat!”

“We’ve had out first outdoor net in the greenhouse and despite it being slow because of all the rain we’ve had in the winter, it’s good to be outside.”

“In the ideal world we’d be in Antigua again, but as we know the club are strapped for cash and every pound counts, so we’ve got to make the most of what we’ve got.”

“There’s no point moping around because other counties are in places like South Africa and the West Indies. We’ve got what we’ve got and we’ve just got to get our heads down and get on with it.”

With just the one new face coming into the squad this winter in the shape of Calum Haggett, Powell told KSN how the spirit and unity in the Kent squad was high and they can’t wait to play under new skipper James Tredwell:

“We all have a laugh and get on very well. It’s good that we can all be very honest with one another. It’s just a shame James Tredwell isn’t around at the moment to stamp his authority and have his say on things, but it’s wonderful for him and the club that he’s off with England.”

“I’m sure he’d like to be with us in a strange sort of way. He’s a very good player and we’re lucky to have him. He’ll have his own plans and his own way of doing things. He’ll have a good few weeks when he gets back before the start of the season to go through everything, so that’s plenty of time.”

Being his second season at Canterbury, Powell told KSN how he plans to focus on scoring as many runs as he possibly can for the side and hasn’t ruled out featuring in either the T20 or One Day sides after playing just Championship cricket last year:

“No batsman is ever really happy with the amount of runs they score in a season and I hope to kick on and get some big hundreds.”

“We want to be winning games too and after having sat down with Jimmy Adams at the end of last year he asked me what I wanted to do and I said I just want to be scoring more runs.”

“I chatted to Jimmy about me playing some of the One Day stuff and I know where I am with that. There are players ahead of me in the queue, so it’s up to me to prove a few people wrong and get myself into the reckoning for a few One Day games.”

“At my age you know where you are in the squad and what you bring to the party, but for me this season is all about scoring as many runs as I can.”

Kent play Hampshire away over two days beginning on 28th March with two days of cricket against Surrey at Canterbury starting on 2nd April.

They then conclude their pre-season with a four day game against Cardiff MCCU at Canterbury beginning on 10th April with their County Championship campaign starting away to Leicestershire just a week later.

Main picture supplied by Sarah Ansell. To see more of Sarah’s pictures visit www.sarahansellphotography.com