Stevens century serves reminder of timeless merits

Kent 346 for 4 (Stevens 121*, Billings 86*) lead Gloucestershire 221 by 125 runsScorecard

For the professional, this is the most stressful time of the year. With every other press release a “thanks but no thanks” to a player deemed unworthy of further employment, the reminder to observers is a stark one. For all the love in the game, this is when careers and dreams are taken out the back and laid to rest. So today at Bristol, as Gloucestershire toiled amid the weight of Kent’s middle order, who finished day two with a 125-run first innings lead, with six wickets still in hand, some light shone through the August darkness.

Darren Stevens, at 40 years of age, secured his first hundred of a demanding season which could well be his last for Kent. His deal is set to expire at the end of the year and, as of yet, Stevens has yet to see anything resembling a new contract and is keen to sort something soon. Perhaps the most surprising element in this period is that he has had to speak openly about his situation. Usually his performances do the brunt of the negotiations for him.

But this year, things have not come as easy. Going into this match, he had scored only 365 runs and taken 26 wickets in the Championship. As ever with a player being in the latter years of his career, he now has to convince the powers-that-be that this is simply a dip in form rather than a terminal decline. In an interview with BBC Radio Kent, he spoke of his belief that he still has the physical capacity to cope at this level. He even relayed a conversation he had with physios at the club who assured him that, if he looked after himself, he could eke out another two years. All he wants is one more.

There is a nobleness to Stevens and the 12 seasons he has spent at Kent so far. Even then, there’s a savagery that underpins it all, allowing him to fall neatly in the intersection of the venn diagram of …

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