Director of cricket Simon Cook thinks Kent’s ground at Beckenham is a trump card in their hopes for a tier-one women’s team.
Kent confirmed their intention to submit a bid to the England & Wales Cricket Board to become one of eight counties with a professional women’s team from the 2025 season ahead of this summer.
Kent have the most successful women’s county side in England and Wales, with 10 league championships and five T20 titles.
Cook believes the county have “a strong bid” in the tender process because of their ready-to-go second home.
He said: “You don’t enter a bid process to lose or to fail, so we are confident that we will end up with a tier-one team.
“We feel we have got a strong bid because of Beckenham. That’s a huge asset for us.
“It gives women’s cricket a home and a focus, where we can kind of launch the next phase of women’s cricket in Kent.
“No other county has got that facility or a facility close to that.
“All the other bids will be based around playing a little bit at the home ground, playing a bit at the outground, maybe in a school, and that’s why we are confident.
“That’s why we think we should be awarded a tier-one team.”
Some of Kent Women’s players are already professional, although this is due to links with clubs involved in The Hundred, such as South East Stars, or through playing for England.
New women’s captain Megan Belt hopes the move will help convince more Kent men’s fans to watch women’s cricket.
“I’m really excited about it,” she said.
“When I first started, we had Charlotte Edwards as captain and then Tammy Beaumont as captain. For me, that felt like we were professionals – although we didn’t get paid.
“The last couple of years, it’s dropped out a little bit because of the regional set-up coming in. I think now is a really good time.
“Kent fans who support the men’s team can also support the women’s team whereas, with the regional brand they have got at the moment, I don’t think people know necessarily who to support. There’s no link to the club at all.
“I think it will provide a strong link to the club and then women’s County Cricket will go up.”
Dave Smith, women’s and girls’ pathway manager at Kent, added: “It’s incredibly exciting.
“Us and Sussex have produced the most England players – and professional cricketers – certainly since the regional programme has been about. We have probably got as many as 12 professional players playing.
“To hopefully entice several of those to come back and play for their home county would be amazing.
“It also creates a huge opportunity, not only for players growing up in the pathway, but club cricketers – we have got a (Kent) Women’s Premier League now. Players that do well in that can break through, whether that’s into our second team or even our first-team squad.
“We’re doing everything we can to make a successful bid.
“Hopefully, it will sort of win everyone over.”
While Belt is in favour of Kent’s bid to become a tier-one team, her own experiences playing cricket for the side over the past decade have been overwhelmingly positive.
The off-spinner explained: “I’ve really enjoyed my time playing.
“I’ve had some many opportunities, which has also led to me getting a job in teaching at Kent College’s junior school.
“I think there’s still more to come – we’re not quite there yet – but with watching the girls that I teach, there’s so many more opportunities for them.
“But what I’m saying is that I’m not looking back and thinking I’ve been hard done-by. I don’t think I have been.
“I’ve actually had quite a nice cricketing life, growing up.
“Yes, there is more work to be done – but you have got to start from somewhere.”
Having permanently replaced Tammy Beaumont as captain, Belt knows Kent’s current crop cannot afford to look too far ahead yet.
Belt said: “We have got to focus on this season.
“If we get too ahead of ourselves, then we’ll forget the brand of cricket that we play, so I think it’s really important to focus on this season.
“It’s great to think about for the future and I’m one for it quite a lot.
“But I think we have got to rein it back in a little bit and just focus on this season.
“If you perform well, it puts you into a good position if our bid is successful.”
Kent expect to hear whether their bid to bring professional cricket to the county has been successful or not later in the year.
Only Worcestershire and Derbyshire out of the 18 first-class counties have not bid to be one of the eight professional women’s teams.
Kent men’s first team concluded a two-day friendly against Middlesex at Merchant Taylors’ School on Tuesday.
In reply to Middlesex’s 206-6, wicketkeeper Harry Finch (54), captain Daniel Bell-Drummond (47) and all-rounder Joey Evison (33) retired not out in Kent’s 184.
They had reached 29-4 in their second innings during response to Middlesex’s second-innings 56-4.
