Former Kent batsman Matt Walker has spoken of his happiness at returning to the club as assistant coach.

Walker was appointed to the role last week, having played at Canterbury for the majority of his 19-year career. After moving to Essex to for the final three years of his playing career in 2008, Walker went on to join the backroom staff at the county, also in an assistant coach role in 2011.

Speaking to KSN the day after the news of his move back to Kent was announced, Walker said: “It’s all happened pretty quickly, I suppose. It hasn’t properly had time to sink in.”

Walker will be at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence for his first day in the role today (Monday 3 February). “I’ve been nearly six years at Essex as a player and obviously more recently as a coach, and I really enjoyed my time there”, he said. “Having only just finished the other day, I’ve got to put that behind me now and concentrate now on the future and looking forward to getting back to Kent.

“I am excited, it’s where I played most of my cricket all my life and it’s nice to be back home, definitely.”

During his time as at Kent, Walker was a close friend of current club captain Rob Key, and explained how the skipper had helped him find out about the vacancy.

“I had a conversation with Rob [Key] when he took the captaincy back on and we chatted a bit, and he said: would I be interested in the assistant coach role?”

“I think he’s quite keen to get people in that he could trust and know and think would be right for that role and threw the ball into my court, if you like. I had to think about it a little bit initially, because as I say, I was in a job that I really enjoyed at Essex; a good job with some bright prospects, and when you invest plenty of time in whoever it is, it’s tough to walk away from that, but the more I thought about it, the more it [the move to Kent] appealed.

“I went for the interview and handed in my CV and that was it – that was the process – pretty simply, actually. I’m very grateful to be offered the job.”