Kent Cricket News -----------------------------
www.kent.cricket.org ---------- Tue 27 Oct 1998

Steve Marsh has paid the price for a poor Kent
performance this season and has lost the 
captaincy of the county.  Kent and England 
all-rounder Matthew Fleming will succeed him
from next season.

Speaking on BBC Radio Kent, Marsh, who took 
over the position following injury from former
Kent player and now qualified umpire Mark
Benson, said he was very disappointed with 
the news.

"I knew a couple of weeks ago there was a 
strong possibility of this happening", he said,
"... but it has dissappointed me a lot... 
it was only the year before we had such a good
season."

Club secretary Stuart Anderson (who retires
in December) was quick to praise the efforts of
Steve Marsh.

"He's been a great captain", he told Neil 
Bell on Radio Kent, "he had a marvellous 1997 
and I don't think any fault should be 
attributed to him".  Anderson went on to 
suggest that perhaps Kent could learn from 
other successful counties who had rotated 
the captaincy at regular intervals.

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England officials have insisted that Dean
Headley's knee injury is not a major worry.
Headley is on tour with the England team in
Australia, however the Kent fast bowler has 
now been ruled out of a second day's net 
practice in Perth after jarring his knee 
at the WACA in Perth.

The England physiotherapist Wayne Morton said:
"Dean slipped on the crease and felt a little 
bit of pain in the inside of his knee.  He has 
a bit of soreness so we have rested him as a 
precautionary measure.  We will reassess it in a
couple of days."

The opening match of the tour is on Thursday 
at Lilac Hill, where England will take on an 
ACB Chairman's XI.

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Kent's Mark Ealham was one of the unsuccessful
England players who lost their Wills 
International Cup game with South Africa on 
Sunday.  South Africa romped home to victory
in the 47th over with 6 wickets still in hand
at the Bangabandhu stadium in Dhaka.

CricInfo has full coverage of the tournament
with five of our staff in Bangladesh throughout
the week - see http://england.cricket.org 
for further details.

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