List of Kent County Cricket Club captains
Captains
Below is a list of club captains appointed by Kent County Cricket Club or players who have been the sole known captain when no other has been appointed.

List of Kent County Cricket Club captains

Section Title: Captains
Table Section Text: Below is a list of club captains appointed by Kent County Cricket Club or players who have been the sole known captain when no other has been appointed.

Name	First	Last	Notes

William South Norton	1856	1870	No captain is recorded in a match for Kent before 1856 or between the end of the 1870 season and the start of the 1875 season.

Lord Harris	1875	1889	Harris went on to be an influential administrator of both Kent and MCC. He was appointed captain in 1875 and held the role for 15 years, having been on the committee at the club since 1870.

Frank Marchant with William Patterson at times	1890	1897	Marchant was captain for eight seasons between 1890 and 1897. William Patterson, a solicitor, was often unavailable to play in the first half of the season and was "elected captain" in the second part of four seasons.

Jack Mason	1898	1902	Resigned the captaincy after five seasons due to his time commitments as a solicitor. Temporarily captained the side in the last month of the 1909 County Championship winning season when Ted Dillon "stopped playing for business reasons".

Cuthbert Burnup	1903	Made 102 consecutive County Championship appearances for Kent between 1899 and the end of his captaincy in 1903.

C. H. B. Marsham	1904	1908	County Championship winners 1906. Became an England Test selector in 1908.

Ted Dillon	1909	1913	County Championship winners 1909, 1910 and 1913.

Lionel Troughton	1914	1923	Became Kent's General Manager after 1923.

Stanley Cornwallis	1924	1926	A fast bowler who bowled only 560 overs during his three seasons as captain, mainly due to injury.

John Evans	1927	Played his only full season whilst captain.

Geoffrey Legge	1928	1930	Died in 1940 in a flying accident whilst serving in the Fleet Air Arm.

Percy Chapman and Bryan Valentine	1931	1935	Chapman had captained England between 1926 and 1931 before becoming Kent captain. He played less regularly from 1936 onwards and the captaincy was shared at various times, with Valentine generally captaining in his absence, although Chapman retained the official club captaincy until the end of the 1936 season and other players were nominated as "deputy captains" in his place.

Percy Chapman, Ian Akers-Douglas and Bryan Valentine	1936	Akers-Douglass captained the side five times in 1936.

Ronnie Bryan and Bryan Valentine	1937	Bryan was limited to playing for Kent when not working but was granted a three-month leave of absence in 1937 when he shared the captaincy with Valentine.

Gerry Chalk	1938	1939	Killed in action in World War II. Scored over 1,000 runs in both his seasons as captain.

Bryan Valentine	1946	1948	Had previously been joint captain between 1931 and 1937 and had been injured in World War II.

David Clark	1949	1951	Later became an administrator of Kent, MCC and the ICC.

William Murray-Wood	1952	1953	Only an occasional player before being appointed as captain in October 1951, having captained the side in the last five matches of the 1951 season.

Doug Wright	1953	1956	First professional captain. Until this point every captain of the county had been an amateur.

Colin Cowdrey	1957	1971	County Championship winners 1970 and Gillette Cup winners 1967. Longest span as county captain, captaining the county in 250 first-class games over 15 seasons.

Mike Denness	1972	1976	Had stood in as captain when Colin Cowdrey was on England duty and took over full-time at the start of the 1972 season.

Asif Iqbal	1977	First overseas player to captain Kent. Joint County Championship winners 1977, Asif also captained the Pakistan side.

Alan Ealham	1978	1980	County Championship winners 1978. Ealham was appointed shortly before the start of the 1978 season amid controversy over the role of Asif and other senior players in the establishment of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket competition.

Asif Iqbal	1981	1982	Previously captain in 1977.

Chris Tavaré	1983	1984	England Test batsman who later captained Somerset.

Chris Cowdrey	1985	1990	Son of Colin Cowdrey, Kent captain from 1957 to 1971. Captained England on one occasion in 1988.

Mark Benson	1991	1996	Benson was injured in 1996 and did not play, retiring in mid-season. He had been appointed captain at the start of the season although Steve Marsh captain the side throughout the season.

Steve Marsh	1996	1998	Captained the county to the 1995 National League title when Mark Benson was injured in the latter half of the season.

Matthew Fleming	1999	2002	Replaced Marsh at the end of the 1998 season, having previously captained the British Army cricket team. Was the Chairman of the Professional Cricketers Association from 1998 to 2001 and later became the MCC Chairman of Cricket in 2013 and President in 2016.

David Fulton	2003	2005	Matthew Fleming retained the club captaincy in 2002 with Fulton captaining the side in the County Championship before being appointed sole captain in October 2002.

Robert Key	2006	2012	Won the Twenty20 Cup in 2007 and the Second Division County Championship title in 2009. Key resigned the captaincy at the end of the 2012 season.

James Tredwell	2013	Resigned after one season to focus on his role within the England team, having missed several matches during 2013 whilst on England duty.

Robert Key	2014	2015	Previously captain 2006 to 2012. Sam Northeast acted as County Championship captain for much of 2015 and was the one-day captain throughout the year.

Sam Northeast	2016	2017	Appointed in September 2016 after captaining the team on the field for most of the 2016 season. Reappointed for the 2017 season in September 2016 and replaced by the county in January 2018 after declining the offer of a contract extension which would have kept him at Kent beyond the end of the 2018 season.

Sam Billings	2018	Present	Appointed in January 2018. Joe Denly captained the team at the beginning of the 2018 season whilst Billings was playing for England cricket team and in the 2018 Indian Premier League.

Sentence(s)

In 1937, Bryan took three months to leave from work and was appointed joint captain of Kent alongside Bryan Valentine.

final_sentence: In 1937, Bryan took three months to leave from work and was appointed joint captain of Kent alongside Bryan Valentine.