Kent bosses have been left to count the cost of a prolonged spell of bad weather during a crucial period of the season that has set the club back £50,000 in the space of a week.

Rain wiped out the majority of the Tunbridge Wells Festival, a key week of the season that usually guarantees packed crowds at the Nevill Ground.

Then the Friends Life t20 opener against Sussex Sharks, which had been switched from Tunbridge Wells to Canterbury, was abandoned without a ball being bowled on Tuesday.

Kent’s chief executive Jamie Clifford (pictured) said: "I just hope the sun shines soon as we have some ground to make up financially and we have got to work hard to make sure that ground is made up as quickly as possible."

With the number of home games in this year’s T20 restricted to just five this summer, the loss of one game already and the implications it has for the rest of the season could be significant.

A guaranteed sell-out crowd of 5,000 at Tunbridge Wells would have gone a long way to make up for the lost time earlier in Festival Week and despite the county having taken out insurance for the loss of that game, Mr Clifford conceded the club would be looking at a sizeable £50,000 deficit in their budget.

He said: "I gave a figure of £50,000 earlier in the week and I think that's just about on the money.

"That wouldn't have changed as a result of the game on Tuesday being off because we were insured for that, whereas we weren't for the championship and one-day games at Tunbridge Wells.

"We are £50,000 adrift of our budgets which is significant, so overall it's been a costly week."