Kent all-rounder Darren Stevens is the latest player to state his desire to stay with the county.

Stevens follows spinner James Tredwell who exclusively told Kent Sports News last week that he would like to extend his time with Kent beyond the remaining year left on his contract.

Both players will be out of contract in September 2012 and tentative talks have already begun between them and the management with Stevens firm in the belief that he would like to stay at Canterbury:

“I bumped into Jamie (Clifford) before the bike ride and we spoke about setting up a meeting and get a date down to talk about contracts.”

“I made it very clear that I’m very happy here and even though there is quite a lot going on at the club, that we’ve got a great group of players and we can go on and challenge and win things.”

“We just need to add another couple of senior bowlers and a batter just to strengthen it up.”

“I still think we can win things, especially in One Day cricket over the next few years.”

“I’m very happy here with family life down here and I said it to Jamie that I’d like to finish my career with Kent.”

That news will be great for Kent fans to hear after the loss of Joe Denly to Middlesex and Martin van Jaarsveld to Leicestershire in the last month with Stevens one of the most consistent performers in recent years.

Stevens has also shown he is more than happy to do his bit for charity cycling between Hove and Canterbury and then between Canterbury and Chelmsford in aid of Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research.

The Kent star joined up with Surrey coach Chris Adams and his brother David for the gruelling 74 mile leg between Hove and Canterbury and enjoyed the experience so much that he did the next leg the following day, however he did admit the odd hill took its’ toll:

“From Sussex to Canterbury was a bit of a gradual climb with the odd hill or there. Charing Hill was the real bad bit of that leg, but going from Canterbury to Essex was a killer as it was all uphill.”

“We had a little bit of downhill as we went into Gravesend and then we went over on the ferry, but it was all uphill again from there.”

“I know Dave really well and we’d been talking about it for a while. He asked me if I’d be interested and as I’d been doing quite a bit of cycling over the summer I thought I’d give it a go.”

“I had a bit of a niggle in my knee, so I stopped running and got a bike. I bought myself a Boardman bike and get out about two or three times a week.”

Stevens is quite some sportsman, enjoying his cycling, enjoys a flutter on the horses and is known to play golf. When asked whether he has played much since the end of the season, he said:

“I might well have squeezed the odd round in!”