Kent’s Australian Italian is looking for a 2025 that could propel him to the next World Cup. But for Grant Stewart, the new cricket season is more about hopefully taking Kent straight back to Division One of the County Championship.

Stewart is hoping he can be part of the Italian campaign for possible World cricket qualification, with the all-rounder born in Western Australia to an Italian mother is about to start his ninth summer at Canterbury and is keen for Kent to have a good year. 

“One of the veterans of the dressing room!” joked Stewart with KSN when we spoke at Kent’s media day. “In truth, it’s beginning to look like that now! I was a young whipper snapper when I first arrived… I have just turned 31 now so am certainly at the older end of the spectrum in our dressing room!” 

“It’s always an exciting time of the season with the start coming, I have had a pretty busy winter. Had a couple of fifty over tours with Italy, went back to Australia to see the family and played some Club cricket, before going to India with other members of our squad to have a bit of a hit outside, before we came back to Canterbury to get ready for the start of the season.” 

“It’s great playing club cricket in Australia. The last few years I’ve been playing in Newcastle near where my family live and it’s a local competition that I played in, in my early twenties before I came to England… I’ve still got some very good mates and there are other English players playing too.” 

Stewart then explained what the Italians must do on the long road to the next World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia in 2027.

“Towards the World Cup we’re at a crucial stage in a three-stage tournament – we have played two of the stages now, one in Australia and one in Hong Kong with still one to come, and if we can be in the top two, we’ll move onto the next stage!”

“I guess the goal for us is to get into Cricket League Two and the likes of Netherlands and Scotland and those teams. It basically means that you get nine tri-series over a three-year period which would be massive for Cricket in Italy.” 

Stewart then reflected on a tough past season for Kent and how he hopes the side can bounce back this year.

“Last year was tough – there is no sugar-coating things, it was a tough year. It isn’t that enjoyable when you’re not having a good time so whilst my winter hasn’t made up for it, but it definitely has given me a lot of motivation this year to make up for how last year actually went.”

“I know for a fact that there is no one in our squad that will want to go down the same path as we went down last year!” 

“As a bowling unit, it was a tough slog – we had a number of injuries which is never an excuse as every county endures injuries, there was a lot of games where we struggled to take twenty wickets, and we cannot shy away from that.”

“We have all gone away and had our work over the winter to help combat that and help to come in and do better this season. We are a tight knit group, and we are all in it together and all try to help each other, and we will try to come up with solutions to be a much more competitive side compared to last year. We know that we have the squad to do that.” 

“A new coach and a clean slate going into a new division. I really like Adam’s (Hollioake) approach so far. He’s only been around for a few weeks, but from what he is saying, his overriding coaching principles really resonate with me, and I look forward to working with him.”

“Sometimes it’s good having a clean slate; everyone is on an even sort of keel, and we all must prove ourselves again. There’s no walking straight into the team; he is someone who will not sugar coat anything, so everyone is going to have to work for their place and I think it is good to have that competitiveness for places in the team!” 

“There’s a few fresh faces around the place leading into the new season and it’s all looking pretty good at the moment – it’s good emotion to have when there is excitement around the changing room as we need to take that into the season and make sure that we are winning games and let that roll on!”