KENT are prepared to let sleeping dogs lie and rule out their threat of legal action should they avoid LV Championship relegation of their own accord.

In good shape in their penultimate game of the campaign at the Rose Bowl this week while fellow strugglers Warwickshire continue their free-fall down the table at Old Trafford, Kent now appear likely to play their way out of trouble.

Should that prove the case, club chairman Carl Openshaw will abandon plans for litigation to win back the five compensatory points offered to the county by the ECB following the New Road flood fiasco.

He said: “We have had a brief word with the ECB this week to say that if we were to be relegated that, in our view, it would not be the end of the matter.

“We do feel we have been badly let down in this matter and, to be fair, the ECB agree, the problem is that the rules do not allow them to do any more.

“But my belief is that Kent are good enough to avoid relegation and if we do so, we have not been damaged, there would be no loss and no claim, so we would move on.”

Mr Openshaw said legal moves, though expensive, had been considered but he is content that regulation changes since the debacle in Worcester in July will at least prevent similar circumstances happening again.

He added: “I think we have a responsibility to the game and maybe in the long run Kent’s cause and image might be damaged (should Kent go down the road of legal action).

“You only do something like that if it’s absolutely clear it will benefit you and be the right course of action, but I don’t think we felt that.

“The rules will now require clubs to find an alternative venue if their ground is unfit rather than giving them an option to do so, which means that the particular set of circumstances Kent suffered from at New Road can never be repeated.”