Kent’s head of women’s cricket Lucy Arman insists they will be proud if any of their players move on to become professionals – but hopes they will be able to re-sign them down the line.
That has led to an exodus of elite players from the Horses. England internationals Alice Davidson-Richards and Ryana MacDonald-Gay, Grace Scrivens and Tammy Beaumont have moved on.
While Arman has no qualms in seeing players head for pastures new in the circumstances, she hopes it won’t be the end of their Kent careers as the county now aim to become a Tier 1 county when the top tier is expanded in 2029.
She said: “With the structure of the ECB and the requirements that they have set us, we will continue producing players.
“We’ll be very passionate to transition any player into a Tier 1 environment.
“In the next couple of years, we would like to see the ECB allow us to start paying our players because the ECB don’t allow us to do that right now which, for the future of the game, I think that’s how we’re going to keep our players.
“For the time being, we just want to work together as a club and, if that does mean players do move into a Tier 1 Academy, then we’re extremely proud of that.
“But when we do get into a Tier 1 position, we’ll do anything we can to get any Kent player back to where they belong.”
Part of being a Tier 2 team means Kent are unable to sign overseas players – something they would like to do in the future.
“Having overseas players is definitely something we would like to bring into what we do here at Kent,” said Arman.
“It’s going to take a few years for Tier 2s to be in that position because of the financial gap from a Tier 1 to a Tier 2 team. I can’t see that being in place any time soon.
“But in terms of conversations for what Kent Women can look like in the future, I think we would be really excited, opening up opportunities for overseas players.”
Arman outlined how close Kent Women are right now to what they had set out to be as a Tier 1 side.
“We’re getting closer to it,” she said. “We’re not completely where we could be because you go with your bid in terms of what funding you would have from the ECB.
“The funding gap is huge from being Tier 1 to Tier 2 and that’s why we’re working a lot with our sponsorship team to get more partners. Hopefully, they can help us with that vision.
“From a training environment point of view, we are really setting the performance standards.
“That’ll just continue growing once we get to where we want to be.”
While there is frustration from the Horses around what future plans might look like, there is the here and now to focus on for Arman, who is the county’s first head of women’s cricket.
She said: “For me in this position at this moment, I’ve got the focus of this being the first time we’ve ever been in League 2 and how that’s going to work.
“Then, on the other side, there is the future and there are frustrations – because we don’t know what everything’s going to look like – because there hasn’t been any messaging. We’re so excited by what that could be.
“We have to work towards that and we’re in a position we have never been in as a club in the women’s set-up.
“It’s the first time we have been named as an elite squad instead of an amateur club. Until the ECB do release anything, the frustration has to slip to the side.
“We just have to remember what we’re passionate about for this year.”
