Darren Stevens awarded Benefit Year in 2016

Kent all-rounder Darren Stevens has been awarded a Benefit Year for 2016 after more than a decade of service to the county.

The 39-year-old will celebrate his twelfth season at Kent next year and says the Garden of England has become a second home since leaving his home county Leicestershire in 2004.

Stevens has gained cult status among Kent supporters with exciting displays with bat and ball throughout his years at the club and committed his future to the club last summer.

The 39-year-old said: “It's a great privilege to be awarded a benefit year. I have settled in Kent and am proud to call it my home. My baby son is Kentish and I feel like part of the furniture here.

“The Members and Supporters have been behind me from day one and taken me as one of their own and I hope they have enjoyed watching me play.

“I’ve always committed 100 per cent to my cricket and I'm looking forward to making 2016 a memorable year on and off the pitch.”

Arriving as a batsman and occasional bowler, Stevens has become a genuine all-rounder at Kent and claimed his 300th first-class career wicket this season.

His best figures came at Canterbury with 7-21 against oldest rivals Surrey in 2011 and he has 12 five-wicket hauls and a ten-wicket match for Kent.

He won player of the year in 2005 and 2010 as well as the Walter Lawrence Trophy for the fastest county century in 2013 for a 44-ball ton against Sussex in the YB40.

He has scored more than 13,000 first-class runs with his career-best score of 208 achieved for Kent against Middlesex at Uxbridge in 2005, the same year he was awarded his Kent cap.

Stevens was the first batsman to score 3,000 runs in English T20 cricket and scored his sixth List A century in 2015 to take his tally to almost 7,000 runs in 40/50 over cricket.

In 2014, he won Natwest T20 Blast Player of the Year at the PCA Awards and Fitzgerald Jewellers’ One-Day Player of the Year at the Spitfire Kent Cricket Awards.

This season, he has continued to be a mainstay, scoring more than 900 runs and took 87 wickets in all formats.

Stevens has chosen Giles Hilton, head of free-on sales at Faversham-based brewery Shepherd Neame, to be his Benefit Chairman.

Mr Hilton said: “I am honoured to have been chosen by such an iconic Kent cricketer to support his benefit year, and look forward to working with him to ensure it is a great success.”