This is a list of cricketers who played for Kent county cricket teams in first-class cricket matches before the formation of the first Kent County Cricket Club in August 1842. Cricket is generally believed to have originated out of children's bat and ball games in the areas of the Weald and North and South Downs in Kent and Sussex. The two counties and Surrey were the first centres of the game and the first known inter-county match took place between a Kent side and one from Surrey on Dartford Brent in 1709. Matches played by teams using the name Kent continued throughout the 18th century, and matches by the side have been considered first-class from 1773.