Former Kent captain David Fulton says current skipper Daniel Bell-Drummond’s testimonial year is “fully deserved”.
Fulton will help Bell-Drummond kick-off his year of celebration by hosting a panel of past captains – plus the current man in charge – at a launch lunch next week.
Bell-Drummond made his Kent first-class debut 15 years ago and Fulton is pleased to see that service recognised.
“It’s thoroughly well deserved in Daniel’s case,” said Fulton. “He’s been a fantastic servant at Kent for a long time.
“That’s really what testimonials are for, to reward those kind of cricketers. He hasn’t played for England – a lot of people think that he probably should have done when he was very much at his best – so he’s missed out on central contracts and things like that.
“If you can make a few quid and support some charities along the way, it’s a nice tradition and one that Daniel is fully deserving of.
“It’s the first once since Joe Denly in 2019 from a Kent perspective so it’s been a few years and a lot of things have changed.
“I just hope that it’s a well-supported year.”
Fulton had handed over the captain’s responsibility to Rob Key by the time he enjoyed a testimonial year in 2006. Bell-Drummond will still be Kent captain this summer while the year of celebration takes place around him.
“I think you’ve got to compartmentalise a little bit, particularly when you’re captain,” added Fulton.
“I had mine in 2006. I’d resigned the captaincy by then so I pretty much had less on my plate.
“Daniel has quite a lot on his plate so he’s got to compartmentalise that – the batting, the captaincy, the testimonial.
“But, as much as you can, he needs to try and enjoy it. People are there for you, they’ll put on some good events and there’s a lot of love in the room so go with it.
“I’m looking forward to the launch lunch. There will be a lot of former captains there, people like Chris Cowdrey, Matthew Fleming and Sam Northeast, so it should be really good fun.
“I always say to the beneficiaries, you know the people in the room are coming to support you, they’re very much on your side so just try and enjoy the year as much as you can.”
Fulton is looking forward to watching Kent bounce back from a disappointing campaign last summer.
He’s been impressed with their recruitment and is excited for the development of their homegrown talent, who will be a year wiser after being exposed to first-team cricket in 2025.
“I think the two South African quicks early season and then the left-arm spinning option for the Blast and beyond is really well organised,” said Fulton.
“The key really for Kent is to keep those seamers, and the domestic seamers, on the park.
“If we reflect back to last year when Kent obviously finished bottom of Division 2, you could look at that and go that’s not great.
“But you could also look at it and what Kent did well, was they saw that opportunity to play some youngsters and to fast track some of them and find out a bit more about them.
“That’s the most exciting thing, players like Olly Curtiss, Jaydn Denly and Ben Dawkins made really good contributions. That little stint that they had in the team both in the One Day Cup and the Championship at the back end of the year will no doubt do them a heap of good.
“Sometimes you need to hit the bottom to bounce back and I’d like to think that last summer was the beginning of the bounce and we can continue to ride that through this year.
“There’s some good signings, Sam Northeast is back, you’ve got Zak Crawley going to be around for a good chunk of the summer, they held on to Tawanda Muyeye and you’ve got the runs of Ben Compton – so there’s a lot of like about the squad.
“It’s just a case of staying fit and then the batters scoring enough runs to be in good shape.”
The launch lunch for Daniel Bell-Drummond’s testimonial year takes place at the Mercure Hotel in Maidstone on Thursday, February 12. Tickets are £65 per head, contact Jacqueline@dbd2026.com for details or visit the website at www.dbd2026.com.
