Grant Stewart has been talking to KSN ahead of Kent’s opening match of 2024 when County Cricket returns to Canterbury on Friday with the visit of Somerset to the Spitfire Ground. 

We sat down with the all-rounder, and we spoke about all things ahead, but first he admitted, “We had a tough year last year, and in truth we probably under performed. We hung on from relegation in four-day cricket and were not involved in any Finals in both white ball formats which is below the standards that we set ourselves, so I think it is fair to say that it was a frustrating 2023 and let us hope for a better 2024.” 

“We have had a good history in the T20s in recent years. We then won it in 2021, had a dire year the following year and then last year was not our best either, but we did find some momentum towards the back end of the competition and went into the last game with a chance of qualifying going into that last game against Somerset who eventually won the whole thing.”

“But overall, we have a very good squad in white ball cricket, I do think we have some unfinished business there and I think that we have a team that should be in and around the Play Offs every year.” 

“I am not just a white ball bowler as I really enjoy playing four-day cricket. The frustrating thing for me is that for a while I have had an ongoing Achillies problem which has limited my performances in four-day cricket that led to an operation last September that will hopefully rectify that.”

“I have aspirations this year to do better things than I have done in the last couple of years, particularly in four day cricket this year and hopefully make a bit more of an impact.”

“We’ve got a well-rounded bowling attack this year especially bringing in the likes of Wes Agar as he gives us more strike power and with the other bowlers we have, it will add a more balanced attack that gives us more options as opposed to maybe relying on one or two as we’ve done in the last couple of years.”  

Turning away from Canterbury, Stewart is currently playing international white ball cricket for Italy, and we were interested in how that came about – he told us, “Initially I was contacted through the Cricket Club by the federation in Italy to see if I was interested in playing.”

“It was something that I had thought about for a while, but I wanted to hone my game and cement my spot here at Kent and progress my cricket through the County circuit.” 

“It was always something that I was keen to do – represent my Mum’s side of the family. It has been good – I have done three tours with them now – it is funny too as a lot of people will probably look at it as not a great standard of cricket!”

“I am not saying it is the same standard as playing County Cricket, there are different challenges that you face. A lot of the wickets are spin dominated, but there’s a lot on the line in every game because as an emerging nation, rankings are very key to the amount of funding each country gets, so for example – the last tournament we played in Malaysia, the difference between qualifying to the next stage and not was I think around USD900,000 for three years funding for the countries that got through.”

“They mean a lot to the people who are playing and too the federations who are playing – it’s high stakes but in a different way.”

“Hopefully, you never know, but it could lead to a chance of playing in a T20 World Cup down the line! We were close to qualifying for this year’s – losing to Ireland by seven runs which was the difference.”

“We were not too far off at all, so it has stoked the fire as we are not as far away as we once seemed!”