Walker happy with season

Matthew Walker made 197 against title-chasers Lancashire at Canterbury in mid-July

Kent had an unremarkable season in 2006, finishing mid-table in both the Liverpool Victoria County Championship and the NatWest Pro40 but Matthew Walker was able to draw on plenty of positives.

Walker was Kent’s leading batsman in the championship, scoring 1,419 runs at an average of more than 61. He just missed out on a double century, making 197 against Lancashire in July before being run out.

“For the last four or five years I have felt comfortable with my technique and pretty confident about my batting,” he told ecb.co.uk.

“I have had relative success and scored pretty heavily, but this has been an exceptional year. My concentration levels have been high and my technique is solid.

“When you go out to bat knowing your game inside out and put a high price on your wicket then it does make a huge difference.”

But Walker’s added confidence did not mean that he changed his game plan and looked to score at a faster rate.

“Every innings I played was pretty much the same pace," he said. "I just went about my batting the same from the first match of the season to the last match of the season. I had a method which I stuck to and it paid off.”

The 32-year-old has matured as a batsman and is reaping the rewards of his hard work.

Walker did not want to give his wicket away to the opposition

“It is a mixture of being mentally strong and fighting hard for your wicket and being comfortable with your technique. The combination was a successful one,” he added.

However, despite Walker’s personal success, Kent had few successes of their own as they did not manage to compete for a trophy in any of the four competitions.

“I think if you look at it from a spectator’s angle, it was another frustrating one, another disappointing season without silverware. But if you look at the bigger picture, it has been a pretty good one," Walker said.

“We have had a limited budget and we haven’t strengthened the side. We had the same squad who went about their business last year. We knew what we had to work with.”

Kent finished fifth in the championship, with four wins, four losses and eight draws.

“I think it has been a pretty steady year in terms of championship cricket," he said. "It has been a bit up and down, a bit inconsistent, but we have actually played some really good cricket.

Walker and Darren Stevens batted well © Getty Images

"Unfortunately we never really got a run of wins together to get further up the table and challenge, but we held our own and beat some good sides along the way."

Kent also finished fifth in the NatWest Pro40 table, despite taking 10 points from their eight games, and reached the quarter-finals of the Twenty20 Cup.

Walker said: “In one-day cricket there was a huge improvement from where we were last year when we struggled to get any momentum. This year was a complete turnaround.

“We had a couple of good games in the C&G but again we fell away a bit towards the end. We beat Sussex, who won it, and Hampshire, but again didn’t get enough wins in a row to really get ourselves going.

“But it is looking really promising in one-day stuff and it is good development for young players coming through.”