a Kent batsman at the St Lawrence Ground. Despite the talent he had shown during his innings against Somerset, he found the next few seasons difficult. In an interview with All Out Cricket magazine, he said "I’d had a bit of first team cricket, and was dropped and managed to work my way back into the team in the second half of the year but just couldn’t get it right." For four seasons, between 1997 and 2000, Walker consistently averaged in the mid-twenties, scoring just one century in the process. Since then, he has scored over one thousand runs in a season on three occasions. Walker's most productive season in terms of run-scoring was 2006, in which he scored 1,419 runs at the average of 61.19. In the game against Lancashire that year, he came close to adding a second career double-century to his name. However, he was dismissed on 197, run out after collapsing with cramp. His run-scoring throughout 2006 earned him Kent's Player of the Year award. Walker was appointed List A captain of Kent for the second half of the 2005 season, following the resignation of David Fulton. However, he was unable to lead the team any higher than eighth in the second division of the Pro40 League. In 2007, Walker hit the highest score of the innings in Kent's victory over Gloucestershire in the Twenty20 Cup Final. However, after finding first-team opportunities limited during 2008, he was released by Kent and signed for Essex on a two-year contract. Coaching career In the winter of 2011, Graham Gooch stepped down in his role as Essex batting coach to work full-time with the England team and Walker was appointed to the same role, retiring as a player. In April 2014 he re-joined Kent as an assistant to head coach Jimmy Adams, having left Essex in order to return to his "home club". After Adams left Kent in October 2016 to return to the Caribbean, Walker was appointed head coach of the club in January 2017. Following Kent's promotion to Division One of the County Championship in 2018, Walker's contract was extended. References External links 1974 births Living people English cricketers Kent cricketers Essex cricketers People educated at King's School, Rochester Sportspeople from Gravesend, Kent First-Class Counties Select XI cricketers