All-rounder Darren Stevens is looking forward to what will be his 19th season as a professional cricketer when Kent start their new campaign on Sunday.

The 38 year old, who turns 39 at the end of this month, joined Kent back in 2005 and has emerged as a real crowd favourite at the club and is without doubt, one of the first names on any teamsheet in the past few seasons.

Instrumental to Kent’s successes, Stevens has been vital with both bat and ball in recent years, smashing attackes to all parts, whilst providing control with the ball in his hand and taking wickets at key times.

Now ready for yet another season, Stevens is hoping this will be a successful one for Kent and he’s looking forward to going into the campaign without any worries and having become a father in the winter:

“I’m really looking forward to it. The away trips will provide me with a bit more sleep being a new Dad!”

“With all these young lads coming through now, it’s a really nice feel as they’re all pushing for spots, even pushing me for a place and that’s a nice thing for the club.”

“I bowled far too much last year, but we had a lot of inexperience with the ball. A lot of it was down to myself, Mitch Claydon and Adam Riley, but we have got some great young bowlers coming through and they have been away for the winter and learnt a lot.”

Both Joe Denly and Matt Coles are back at the club and will provide more experience to the Kent line up and Stevens is looking forward to lining up alongside the pair again:

“In the last few seasons we had a lot of guys under 24 and some over 34, so with Joe and Matt coming back into the side, they’re in their late twenties and they will bridge the gap.”

“Joe has international experience, went away to Middlesex where it didn’t quite work out for him, but he’s come back to us and he is looking as good as I have ever seen him.”

“Colesy is a natural talent in all formats. He can bat, bowl and field. He has a bit of class and I’m excited to see both of them back at Kent.”

“We have a real sense of unity now at Kent, we’re all in a good place and we all want to go in the same direction.”

Last year Stevens narrowly missed out on winning the PCA Most Valuable Player of the Year award and he’s hoping his performances this season will see him go one step further:

“Everybody wants to play international cricket, but that might just be beyond my reach now! It’s great to have the respect of your peers, and I may have that, but getting that Player of the Year would be great and it’s something I would like to have.”

“I will be doing my best to get as many wickets as I can and as many runs as I can, but the big thing is winning as many games as I can for Kent.”

“If we win games and some silverware, there’s every chance I will be up there for the MVP.”

“I can’t see why we can’t go on and win something this year. This squad certainly has the talent.”

One talented individual in the Kent squad is wicketkeeper Sam Billings and the 23 year old is expected to play for England in the One Day International against Ireland at the start of May.

With that in mind, Stevens is hoping Billings can make the most of any opportunities that come his way:

“I’d rather not talk him up about playing for England. He’s a good friend of mine and I’d rather he just keep his feet on the ground.”

“For him to kick on, he just needs to concentrate on doing what he does best and that’s keep and bat.”

“There’s a lot of hype about him at the moment and I just hope that flies straight over his head and he just carries on where he left off last year.”