Head Coach Matt Walker will step down from his position at Kent Cricket after eight years at the end of the 2024 season.

The 50-year-old was appointed as Head Coach of Kent’s Men’s side in 2017, following a stint as Assistant Coach at the Club beginning in 2014.

Gravesend-born Walker spent 16 years of his playing career at the county, scoring more than 12,000 first-class runs, winning the Sunday League in 1995 & 2001, and top-scored in Kent’s Twenty20 Cup Final win in 2007.

Under the former left-hander’s leadership, Kent won the 2021 Vitality Blast, achieved promotion to Division One of the County Championship, as well as reaching the final of the One Day Cup in 2018. Under Walker’s stewardship, Kent also won the One Day Cup in 2022.

On leaving his role at the end of the season, Matt Walker said: “It’s been an incredible honour to be the Head Coach of my home county for eight years.

“Now is the time for new ideas and new personnel to come in and make their own mark on Men’s cricket at Kent, something that I have really enjoyed doing in my time here. The promotion to Division One and trophy successes have been fantastic to be a part of but most of all working with the players and the coaches here has always been the most rewarding.

“I’m now looking forward to watching Kent as a fan again and beginning a new challenge, whatever that might be.”

“There have of course been many highs we’ve shared together collectively as well as some low points – that’s sport, that’s why we all love it.

“Winning the Vitality Blast in 2021 will always be up there for me as one of the best days of coaching this great Club. The players bought us that success on the field but the knock-on effect that had for everyone, including the staff and of course our loyal Members and supporters, was a feeling that people rarely experience. 

“I’d like to thank everyone involved with Kent Cricket for making this one of the best jobs in the world, and I wish the Club, and everyone connected to it, the very best for the future.”

Kent’s Director of Cricket, Simon Cook, said: “Matt has been an outstanding servant to the Club not only as a player but as a coach, too.

“He is one of a handful of people to have won trophies as both a player and a coach, and his name will forever be associated with recent successes at Kent Cricket.

“On behalf of all of the coaches, players, and staff behind the scenes, I’d like to thank Matt for his extremely hard work as Men’s Head Coach, and we all wish him the very best for the future.”