KENT’S ‘walking wounded’ cricketers look set to finish the campaign without reinforcements after the county admitted failure in their bid to bring in one of six or more potential loan players this week.

The club’s director of cricket Graham Ford has approached the likes of Warwickshire, Durham, Yorkshire, Surrey, Hampshire, Sussex and Somerset with a specific loan target, only to be knocked back on each occasion.

Ford said: “We’re hitting a brick wall because most other counties are telling us they are in a similar situation in that they have injuries or they’re still seriously competing in one or more competition fronts.

“They either want to rotate players because of burn out or we’re getting the occasional honest answer where club’s are saying they’re close rivals and don’t really want to help us out.

“At this point it seems we won’t be able to get anybody in which makes it a tough situation for us all, but I believe the guys are up to it.

The situation worsens for Ford with this weekend’s departure of Sri Lankan paceman Lasith Malinga, who returns home after a somewhat disappointing month with the club.

Ford added: “From an attitude point of view Lasith has been excellent, but every time you sign an international player there’s a chance he might be in a slump and an equal chance he’s having a golden trot.

“We know he is a high-class performer who has achieved magnificent things on the international stage. He did special things for us in the Twenty20 semi-final but sadly he hasn’t been able, for one reason or another, to go on and put in a string of performances like that.”