James tredwelll

Well said.

He made a good start with the bat yesterday, with his highest score since the 48 he made for Kent v Glos last season and only the third time he has passed 30 in the championship in two years. I'm looking forward to seeing him bowl today and expecting to see a lot more guile and craft than Zaidi has offered. Joyce must be looking forward to taking the field for the first time this season with someone who can exert some control at one end while he rotates the seamers  at the other.

Kent supporters seem to believe that the county can  afford to keep only one from Riley and Tredwell next season, so if JT does well he's probably available on a permanent transfer, just as Essex made Panesar's loan permanent at the end of last season.

Not sure what Sussex does about Zaidi, whose signing with the benefit of hindsight was a romantic hunch out of an Edwardian boy's own story rather than rooted in the reality of modern-day professional county cricket. Am I right in thinking he was given a two year contract?

It may be that Zaidi will come back with the bat in the next few games; he has been getting some runs for the Second XI so he may have curbed his aggressive club batting instincts. I hope he does, because his enthusiasm is certainly something the club needs at the moment. And, yes, he is on a 2 year contract.

Treadwell batted with great assurance yesterday when almost all above him had played impetuously if not complacently, a succession of strokes imperfectly played with leaden or non-existent footwork. Nash, Machin, Wright and Brown all got in for a time, all played at least one good shot, and all failed to cope with the low bounce. Bresnan bowled well and exploited both the pitch and the batsmen's failings. Sad to see that Azeem Rafiq, former U-19 captain and a hot prospect a couple of years ago as an off-spinning all-rounder, has almost completely lost his bowling. He got 7 overs yesterday, parcelled into 3 spells, and bowled at least one full toss each over.

I always thought it was about getting the wickets across an attack whilst keeping control and using your available resource - hence Giles had a long England career despite an average of 40.60. Yes in retrospect we should have kept Rayner to do this role but no one could predict Panesar would have imploded. Beer simply isn't that primary spinner we need with three decent seamers - no shame in being an attacking secondary spinner but you do need to take wickets on helpful pitches.

I daresay that Kent will be quite pleased if James Tredwell can find his form in his month at Sussex - just in time to return to Canterbury to take maximum toll of Division II batsmen as the pitches turn in his favour. In the meantime, if he can block up an end and cover a few deficiencies, all well and good.

Tredwell clearly doesn't want to stay at Sussex as he has today urged the England selectors to pick Adam Riley for the Test series v India. If they follow his advice, Kent will then be left without an off-spinner - and Tredwell would be recalled home ...

Yes me too - I was just rather amused by him calling on Peter Moores and the England selectors to remove the annoying obstacle that is keeping him out of the Kent side!

Agree there BM. Riley has been perhaps the one crumb of comfort this saeson for Kent! However, the cricket media have gone OTT when considering Riley as the next England bowler. He(Adam Riley) has said himself that he doesn't like all this talk and reminds everyone it is only his first full season in the Championship side! He needs to get some experience under his belt and I sincerely hope he does not end up being "Kerriganed" by England!