Darren Stevens made his debut for Leicestershire in 1997 at the age of 21, but it was not until 1999 that he played his fourth Championship match, and he marked the occasion by scoring 130 against Sussex at Arundel where his innings received the seal of approval of the watching Lord Cowdrey. Even so, his appearances remained spasmodic until middle-order batsmen like Aftab Habib and Ben Smith left the county. He took his chance, impressing many good judges with his clean striking of the ball - earning himself a place in the National Academy squad to go to Australia in 2002-03 and also making the final 30 for that winter's World Cup. After two relatively lean seasons, he left Leicestershire to join Kent at the end of 2004, and was an instant hit scoring an impressive 1277 runs in his first season at Canterbury.

At that stage of his career, bowling was very much Stevens' second string. With Kent coming to rely more and more on his medium-pace, however, he developed into a genuine county allrounder and took the new ball - with plenty of success - during the first half of the 2011 season. Add bowling ability to serious batting power and it was no surprise to see him recruited for T20 cricket by sides in both Bangladesh and New Zealand. Back at Canterbury, Stevens has become hugely popular with Kent supporters and, having passed 10,000 first-class runs in his two-club career and become the most prolific T20 scorer on the county circuit, he signed on again for 2013.
ESPNcricinfo staff