Martin Francis Kent (born 23 November 1953) is a former Australian cricketer who played in three Test matches and five One Day Internationals in 1981.
He recalled " I was probably a better bowler in my youth than a batsman" and made the State Schoolboys side for Central Queensland.
[8] Kent had frequently batted with Greg Chappell and received an offer to tour South Africa with an invitational XI, the International Wanderers.
[14] In October 1976 Jack Fingleton wrote that Kent "will walk into Ian Chappell's vacancy in the national team.
"[15] However Kent was unable to break into the Australian side over the 1976–77 season despite 122 against the touring Pakistanis[16] and 82 against South Australia.
[17] The Australian selectors preferrred Ian Davis, Craig Serjeant, Kim Hughes and David Hookes, all of whom were chosen for the 1977 Ashes tour.
Ian Chappell had admired Kent's batting on the South Africa tour and offered him a contract with World Series Cricket.
[20] This earned him selection in the second supertest, against the WSC West Indies, replacing Doug Walters, but he failed twice.
[29] In the third supertest, Kent's secong innings of 45 helped take Australia from 2-0 to 3-78 and was crucial in a famous Australian victory.
[33] Kent had a patchy 1979–80, not making a first class century, but enjoyed an excellent domestic 1980–81 season, scoring 941 runs at 58.81.
[36] His knock of 41 in the McDonald's Cup Final, helping Queensland win the game, won him Man of the Match Award.
[39] Greg Chappell elected not to tour and Kim Hughes thought at the beginning that Kent was the most likely candidate to replace him at number three.
[48] Kent turned out to be one of Australia's best performing batsmen in the second half of the tour, with a consistent string of scores.