Kent chairman George Kennedy has conceded that an increase in membership prices was inevitable after the club’s promotion back to the County Championship’s top flight last summer.

The club revealed their new pricing structure this week and Mr Kennedy (pictured) admitted that while the 2010 charges would not please everyone, they were necessary to allow the club to compete at the top level.

Mr Kennedy said: "We’re desperate to get the club fit for purpose and our membership structure has not been overhauled properly for a long, long time so what we’re trying to do is give a balance to them with Twenty20 included in some packages and not others.

"There’s no question that prices have gone up but if the members really want the best possible team and to retain the best players, it costs money.

"I’m sure there will be one or two comments about the prices but they are still well in line with other counties and several counties have gone a lot further than us.

"What people must also remember is that the ground redevelopment will be a two-year programme which we will be funding as we go along so there’s no revenue coming in from that yet.

"We’re hoping for revenue from conferencing etc but the debt that we will incur through the council has to be serviced for the next two years before we get any income from that."

Life members now have Twenty20 group games included in their package whereas before they had to pay. The same applies to several other categories including single and family membership. There is no longer a country membership category but there is also a new category – Friends of Kent Cricket – which enables members to tailor their membership depending which form of cricket they prefer to watch.