Kent look set to fill one of their top-order batting berths made vacant by the recent departures of Joe Denly and Martin van Jaarsveld by signing Glamorgan’s Michael Powell.
The 34-year-old right-hander from Abergavenny, a veteran of 212 first-class games, looks set to join the Canterbury-based county on a two-year deal following his recent release by the Welsh club.
Powell, who is just completing his benefit season, has played for Glamorgan since scoring a double hundred against Oxford University on first-class debut in 1997.
A highly effective top-four player in his pomp, Powell has scored almost 11,500 first-class runs at a tidy average approaching 40 – placing him seventh on the list of Glamorgan’s all-time leading run-scorers. He has posted 25 first-class centuries and has also chipped in with more than 4,600 one-day runs for the Dragons.
He has scored 1,000 runs in a season five times, bowls off-spin and has also been known to don the wicketkeeping gloves in an emergency.
Powell, who appears keen to prove his Welsh doubters wrong following his release, said: “I certainly feel I’m fit and fresh enough to play for at least another two years.”
Following Joe Denly’s decision to join Middlesex, Kent captain Rob Key looks certain to form a new opening partnership with Sam Northeast, leaving Powell to fill the No 3 slot occupied so brilliantly for the past seven seasons by Martin van Jaarsveld, who announced a move to Leicestershire last month.