KENT have awarded a benefit to 33-year-old batsman Matthew Walker in 2008.

The Gravesend-born left hander joined the staff in 1992, making his debut two years later. He was capped in 2000.

Walker has scored more than 9,000 first class runs for the county and holds the record for the highest ever individual score by a Kent player – 275 against Somerset at Canterbury in 1996. He has scored 23 hundreds.

The former England Under-19 captain has also scored more than 5,000 runs in 240 one-day appearances, his best score 117 made against Warwickshire in the Benson & Hedges Cup, also at the St Lawrence Ground.