Sam Northeast first came to prominence when as a 13-year-old he scored 19 hundreds in a term, and he continued that form at Harrow where he was in the first XI at the age of 14 and more than held his own. Such was his talent that Kent sent coaches to work with him rather than asking him to travel to Canterbury, and he picked up a string of national awards, including a Bunbury scholarship.

An all-round sportsman, he was a national schools rackets champion, a county squash player and cross-country runner, and good enough at football and rugby to have been offered county trials. In 2005 he made his Kent second XI debut against Durham and scored 96, as well as playing for England Under-15s. In 2006 he was included in a strong Getty XI against the touring Sri Lankans, scoring 62.

He enjoyed an excellent tri-series in Sri Lanka in 2007 - putting on 152 with Billy Godleman in one of the matches - and was part of England's Under-19 World Cup squad in 2008. He travelled with the Under-19 squad to South Africa in January 2009, and was also part of the group that played Bangladesh at home in July. His county career began to develop promisingly too, and he scored his maiden first-class century, against Gloucestershire, at the end of the 2009 season. He solidified his place in 2010 despite struggling in the Championship, scoring 688 runs at 24.57, though he was hardly the only Kent batsman to suffer a lean season, and by the following year was an established member of their line-up.

It was the 2012 season that appeared to be Northeast's coming-of-age campaign, however. Still only 22, he first had to fight his way back into the Championship side, after being dropped to the seconds, and responded with a string of good scores. Come the end of the season he had accumulated 880 second division runs at an average of 55, with three hundreds and five half-centuries. In all competitions his run tally finished just short of 1,400 and he was rewarded with Kent's batsman of the year award. A new contract was also signed but only for one year, with the player saying he wished to keep his options open.
ESPNcricinfo staff