All-rounder Darren Stevens has told KSN of his delight at signing a new deal with Kent and is looking forward to the future.

The 38 year old has put pen to paper on a new two year deal at Canterbury after proving to be one of the box office stars of Kent Cricket over recent years.

Fans have shown their appreciation for Stevens in recent years, voting him Player of the Year last season and One Day Player of the Year for 2014.

On a national stage, Stevens also scooped the PCA Twenty 20 Player of the Year last week, whilst being named in the Team of the Year after more sterling performances with both bat and ball over the past six months.

Now committed to Kent for another two seasons taking him past his 40th birthday, Stevens has told KSN of his delight and securing his future with the club he loves:

“I am chuffed to bits and we’d spoken about it with the club earlier in the season. It took a while to iron out a few clauses and after a good chat with Jamie (Clifford) and Johno (Graham Johnson) it was easy putting pen to paper.”

“I have still got a lot of desire to win games and trophies and do the best I can for Kent.”

“The way the past four or five years have been going, I’ve got better year after year, so I’m looking forward to the next few years.”

“It was a disappointing year with the bat and I should have got a lot more runs, but then I probably bowled about twenty or thirty per cent more overs than I did last year and I think that took its toll a bit.”

“The ball came out well this year and I worked a lot on certain things last winter with Mark Ealham. I love bowling and I’m pleased to have got my first fifty wicket haul for a season.”

One disappoinment for Stevens though was missing out on the Most Valuable Player of the Year award and along with it a cheque for £10,000.

The Kent all-rounder was narrowly pipped at the post by Warwickshire’s Jeetan Patel and admitted he knew it was in his own hands going into the final day of the season against Gloucestershire, but in the end it wasn’t to be:

“Having been told I’d missed out by just four points was disappointing. I walked out on the Thursday night and there was a drunk bloke camped out in the corner shouting out that I had got the MVP wrapped up.”

“I hadn’t even taken guard, so that puts pressure on you straight away and before I’d gone out to bat the lads were telling me I needed to get between fifty and eighty and I’d have rather gone out there not thinking about it.”

“In the end it is disappointing and I was gutted to get out to the spinner in the way I did, but I would back myself every day of the week against spinners.”

Along with Stevens agreeing new contracts at Kent are a whole host of the younger crop of cricketers at Kent and the all-rounder is pleased the nucleus of the side will stay together for years to come and believes the side are capable of going on and having success in the coming seasons:

“Most of these lads now in the side have had a good look at First Class cricket, one day cricket and T20. Some of the guys have been in the side now for the past two or three years, so they have now got a really good feel for it.”

“I said to the lads that we were only one win away from a final, we were probably just a win away from a Quarter Final in the Twenty 20 and we were probably only a couple of wins away from going up in the Championship.”

“We have got a lot of positives to take away from this season, but everyone has got to learn from it and if we get ourselves into certain situations next year where we let ourselves down this year, we can kick on and win those games.”

Despite the season being over, Stevens isn’t a man to rest on his laurels and has got a busy winter ahead with changes in his private life, but admitted he could still face more questions over the match fixing scandal that hit the Bangladesh Premier League:

“The ICC have appealed, so that’s going to be a bit of a pain over the next few weeks, but on the plus side my girlfriend is pregnant and we’re expecting a little boy in December.”

“There are a couple of jobs in the pipeline. I’m fortunate enough that we might be having a Christmas baby, so there are jobs that would be in November and then again in January and February.”

“If Twenty 20 gigs come up, I can’t turn it down and my girlfriend says I shouldn’t turn it down.”

“I’m in talks at the moment with clubs, so fingers crossed something comes up!”

Main picture supplied by www.sarahansellphotography.com