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Page last updated at 13:50 GMT, Monday, 12 July 2010 14:50 UK

Kent pleased with Oval home game

Kent

Kent say they are happy with how many fans went to their experimental home fixture at The Oval on Friday.

The FP t20 clash with Essex was played there in a bid to attract the attention of supporters who work in the capital.

"We're not punching the air saying we had the biggest pay-day in our history but we are pleased," chief executive Jamie Clifford told BBC Radio Kent.

"We'll have come away having made some money as we had 7,620 people in and a lot of Kent support."

He added: "I think with an exercise like that there's always a step into the unknown because you don't really know how it's going to turn out

"I think the structure of the competition means this year that the crowds are down anyway so about a month ago we knew that it was unlikely to be a huge crowd.

"At the moment we don't know the detailed numbers in terms of finances that have come out of it - we have to wait 10 days for Surrey Cricket Club to work out those numbers."

There had been criticism from some Kent fans at the decision to play a home game away from Canterbury or at their other grounds at Tunbridge Wells and Beckenham.

But Clifford has not ruled out repeating the experiment in future.

"Whether we do it again, I'm not sure," he said.

"We've demonstrated the potential - I'm not for a minute going to suggest that we would do it more often than once a season.

"But if it was a game that was more on a knife-edge or an opening game of a competition - a game that you felt more certain to get a big crowd.

"It also makes sense to play Essex or Middlesex there because naturally a lot of their supporters live in London.

"At this stage we don't know if we'll do it again but I think we learned a lot and there is some potential there no doubt to do something along the same lines again."



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see also
Cook helps Essex to win over Kent
09 Jul 10 |  Counties


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