Matthew Jonathan Walker (born 2 January 1974), known as Matt Walker, is a retired English professional cricketer who is currently the head coach of Kent County Cricket Club. Walker was appointed as head coach in January 2017 having been assistant coach at the county since the 2014 season. He played for Kent for 16 seasons until 2008 and then for three seasons for Essex until he retired in 2011. Early career Walker was born in Gravesend and, after enjoying a prolific school cricket record at The King's School, Rochester, made his first appearance for Kent in a Second XI match against Lancashire in 1990. He continued to play in the Second XI for two seasons, after which he was called up to the England under-19 squad for their tour of Pakistan. The tour started poorly for Walker, only making one score of note in the series although he managed to average 48.00 in the limited-overs games that followed. He continued to appear for the England under-19 team until the end of the West Indian tour of England, by which time he had earned an average of 42.07 from 12 youth Tests. Professional career Walker was selected for Kent's first-team for the first time during the side's 1993 pre-season tour of Zimbabwe. Against a Zimbabwean 'B' team, he scored 23 not out and 16 in a drawn match. Despite the promise shown on the tour, Walker would not play for the first-team for another fifteen months. His List A cricket debut came on 17 July 1994, in a Sunday League match against Worcestershire. In nine matches that season, Walker averaged 23.37. In first-class cricket, Walker had three seasons where he finished with a batting average of over fifty: in 1996, 2004 and 2006. 1996 saw Walker hit the highest score of his career to date, on his way to 606 runs at an average of 60.60. Against a Somerset attack without Andrew Caddick, Walker compiled 275 not out in nine-and-a-half hours before his captain Trevor Ward declared the innings at 616/7. The Daily Telegraph's Christopher Martin-Jenkins wrote of the innings: "It was an innings of style and substance, memorable for powerful driving through the off-side and hearty pulling whenever a persevering but ordinary Somerset attack became impatient with line and length and tried to extract a spring in the pitch which simply was not there." It remains the highest score by