[b][8][10][11] Teams under the patronage of landowners such as Edwin Stead of Dartford and Lord John Sackville, who established the Sevenoaks Vine ground on his Knole Park estate, increasingly became more representative of Kent as a county,[c][14][15] and in 1744 a Kent team organised by Sackville played England at the Artillery Ground, a match which was commemorated in a poem by James Love.

[29] Selby and Norton recruited Fuller Pilch from Norfolk, considered the best batsman in England, to play at Town Malling and maintain the cricket ground.

[34][35] After the failure of the Town Malling club, the Bakers stepped in to organise Kent teams, with Pilch managing the ground.

The best amateurs still rarely appeared and Kent lacked a core of talented professionals to provide the team with a solid foundation.

He set about reforming the club with an "energetic administration",[43] although performances improved only slowly at first and when the County Championship was formerly established in 1890 Kent were initially able to finish only in mid table.

The Nursery, which was run by Captain William McCanlis and set up and overseen by Tom Pawley who became the club's general manager in 1898, identified and provided organised coaching and match practise for young professionals for the first time.

[49] Professional batsmen such as Punter Humphreys and James Seymour and all-rounders such as Frank Woolley became an increasing part of Kent's success, coming together with a group of "gifted" amateurs to produce strong batting lineups.

[54] Players such as Woolley, Wally Hardinge and Les Ames all played at the peak of their careers, whilst Blythe's bowling was replaced by Tich Freeman's.

[55][59] Gerry Chalk had captained the side in 1939 when they had, once again, finished in the top five of the Championship, but he was killed during World War II and the post-war period saw Kent struggle to compete consistently.

In August 2007, the side won the Twenty20 Cup for the first time, defeating Sussex in the semi-finals, with captain Rob Key scoring 68 not out.

[37] In November 2016, Kent accepted an invitation from the West Indies Cricket Board to compete in the 2016–17 Regional Super50 domestic List A tournament in January and February 2017.

[75][76] Kent played their first official match at White Hart Field in Bromley in August 1842 and since then have used 29 different grounds within the historic county.

Indoor cricket schools are in place at both this ground and at Beckenham which acts as a centre of excellence for player development in the west of the county.

[80] Kent's most notable former players include Colin Cowdrey, the first man to play 100 Test matches, Frank Woolley, Derek Underwood and wicket-keepers Les Ames and Alan Knott.

[81] A total of 30 Kent players have been named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year, most recently Zak Crawley and Darren Stevens in 2021 and Tammy Beaumont in 2019.

Blythe was a major force in the four County Championship wins in the years leading up to World War I and took 100 wickets in every season from 1902 to 1914.

[86] Fast bowler Graham Dilley represented England in 41 Test matches in the 1980s, whilst all-rounder Mark Ealham played in 64 one-day internationals in the 1990s and early 2000s.

[87] Fred Huish, who never played for England, is considered as the "first of a line of exceptional Kent wicket-keepers"[88] which have included Godfrey Evans, who played 91 Tests for England,[89] Geraint Jones, with 34 Test and 49 ODI appearances, as well as Edward Tylecote, George Wood and Hopper Levett all of whom were capped by the country.

Overseas players who have made a significant contribution to Kent cricket include West Indians John Shepherd, Eldine Baptiste, Bernard Julien and Carl Hooper and Pakistan captain Asif Iqbal all of whom played multiple seasons for the county.

Other great world cricketers to have played for the county for single seasons include Sri Lankans Aravinda de Silva and Muttiah Muralitharan, India's Rahul Dravid and Australia's former Test captain Steve Waugh.

They included Alfred Mynn, who played for the county in the 19th century, Les Ames, Colin Blythe, Tich Freeman and Frank Woolley from the first half of the 20th century, Godfrey Evans and Doug Wright from the 1930s–50s era, and Colin Cowdrey, Alan Knott, Brian Luckhurst, John Shepherd and Derek Underwood from the teams of the 1960s and 70s.

[94][95] The first bricks were produced for the walkway in April 2012[96] although they were removed during development of the ground in 2017–18 and moved adjacent to the Nackington Road entrance.

[106] The team was promoted to Division One of the County Championship in his first season as head coach, and won the 2021 Vitality Blast and 2022 One-Day Cup under his leadership.

[107][108] The team's bowling coach until September 2023 was Simon Cook, another past player who was appointed as the club's Directors of Cricket, replacing Paul Downton.

[109] He was replaced by Robbie Joseph, a former fast bowler who took 230 wickets for the county and had previously worked as the bowling coach at Gloucestershire.

[110][111] The Head of Talent Pathway in charge of the development of young cricketers at the club is former Second XI coach and player Min Patel.

[116] Along with Woolley and Freeman, Wally Hardinge, James Seymour and Derek Underwood are the only men with more than 500 first-class appearances for Kent.

[h][120] These matches were played almost exclusively against MCC and Gentlemen of England sides and an annual first-class fixture took place during the Canterbury Cricket Week between 1842 and 1866.

Past winners have included county First XI players Daniel Bell-Drummond, Alex Blake[129] and Ollie Robinson.

[132][133][134][135] Former Kent and England spin bowler Min Patel took over the running of the academy on an interim basis following Willis' departure[128] before becoming Second XI coach in January 2017, with former Shropshire wicket-keeper Jason Weaver taking over the role as high performance director, the two jobs replacing Willis' former role.