Head coach wants his side to challenge the Championship’s frontrunners after 10-year absence
Alan Gardner28-Mar-2025Sussex’s base at Hove may be one of the more tranquil destinations on the county circuit. But when the club make their return to Division One of the Championship after a ten-year absence next month, opponents should not arrive expecting a ride on the teacups.That is the message coming from the 2024 Division Two champions, with head coach, Paul Farbrace, saying Sussex will go into the new season “aiming to win” the title. If that proves beyond them, Farbace is targeting a finish of fourth or higher, with the goal of being in the top two the following summer.All this is part of a five-year plan Farbrace drew up when appointed to succeed Ian Salisbury in the winter of 2022-2023. Sussex, who lifted the County Championship as recently as 2007, were at the time languishing in the second tier, having won just three first-class matches in the previous three seasons – but Farbrace immediately set about scotching talk of incremental progress, declaring that the club should be challenging for promotion and a place at T20 Finals Day.Related
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Although Sussex finished that season in third, those lofty twin goals were eventually realised a year later – John Simpson (a Farbrace signing) captaining them to the Division Two title with a 20-point gap on Yorkshire, while Tymal Mills oversaw a run to the last four of the Blast. It proved swift vindication for Farbrace’s belief that the players could walk his talk.”I deliberately tried to change the language [around the club],” Farbrace tells ESPNcricinfo during Sussex’s pre-season media day at Hove. “At the time, people were saying to me, it’s a tough job, because, you know, they’ve only won one game [per season] in three years. But actually, we’ve got a group of players, they were crying out for someone to say, ‘Right, this is where we going. Come on, let’s roll our sleeves up. Let’s have fun doing it.'”I think there’s a real feelgood [factor], and everyone’s realising now that we don’t have to be a team that just talks about, ‘What’s our relevance in county cricket?’ Let’s show people our relevance. Let’s punch above our weight. All right, some of the clubs have got bigger and better budgets than we have, but it’s not about that. It’s about having the right people in the right places, whether that’s on the field or off the field, and have a bit of fun doing what you’re doing. You spend a lot of time at cricket, practicing, playing, working at the game. You want to enjoy it as well. But you enjoy it so much more when you’re winning.”It was not all smooth sailing from the outset, with ill discipline undermining their promotion push in 2023 – Sussex were docked 12 points after a bad-tempered late-season win over Leicestershire – and rumours that not everyone agreed with Farbrace’s approach. Ali Orr, one of the club’s brightest batting talents, was allowed to leave for Hampshire, prompting Chris Adams and Ian Gould, two Sussex stalwarts, to step down from advisory roles. George Garton, another homegrown talent, also found himself surplus to requirements.Upending the deckchairs at a tight-knit club like Sussex could have been risky but Farbrace believes it was important to “give the place a shake” after several seasons in which cost-cutting and a reliance on the academy had limited ambition. He also says he has tempered his approach accordingly as the team has developed.”I had to do that,” he says. “I think that was part of my role when I first came in. I’d like to think I’m doing things differently to what I did in the first year. The first year, I was very bullish, I didn’t really ask too many questions. I told people what we were doing, let’s get on board and make sure you’re with me. That was something that I spent a lot of time doing, making sure people understood what we were trying to do and why we were trying to do it. And, yeah, I did ruffle a few feathers, I think I had to.Sussex won promotion with a game to spare in 2024•Getty Images
“I had quite a few spats with people during that first year. But I definitely think it was the right thing to do. And then subsequently, last year, I’ve been a lot more inclusive, a lot more open, I’ve asked a lot more people’s thoughts and views, and I’m hopefully starting to sit back a little bit more. It’s now a case of saying, we’ve got the right captains, we’ve got the right coaches, we’ve got the right support staff. The pitches are playing brilliantly. Now I can sit back a little bit and just keep nudging people in the right direction and make sure we keep that momentum going, and not feel as I’ve got to be at the front of it. It wasn’t about me, per se – it was just about someone just giving the place a bit of a shake. Saying, ‘Come on. Let’s compete. Let’s have some fun taking people on.’ And if it doesn’t work, I take full responsibility.”He admits, however, that things might have turned out differently had Sussex not sneaked their way to a two-wicket win over eventual Division Two-winners, Durham, in his first game in charge. “I’ll always be indebted to Oli Carter for the innings that he played to get us over the line against Durham. Because beating a strong Durham team here, in that first game, everyone started thinking: actually, maybe that idiot knows what he’s doing.”Faith in the group that Farbrace has assembled means there have been few changes at Sussex over the winter, with rookie contracts for George Thomas, the former England U19 batter released by Somerset, Nantes Oosthuizen and ACE academy graduate Troy Henry the only additions. Simpson will again lead the red-ball side after a stunning first summer down on the south coast in which he averaged 74.81 with the bat – and he has counselled his players that they will “need to be better for longer” in Division One as they seek to avoid a battle for survival.For the first time in four seasons, there is no Cheteshwar Pujara to act as batting bulwark – but Australian Daniel Hughes is back for a full campaign after impressing last year. West Indies quick Jayden Seales also returns to lead the attack alongside Ollie Robinson during the first block of Championship games. Robinson, who is expected to be fit after hernia surgery, opted not to speak to the media, presumably in anticipation of his bowling doing the talking as he aims to nudge the selectors more than a year on from his last England cap.And while incipient plans to nurture Jofra Archer’s Test comeback via a few appearances in the opening rounds of the Championship season were shelved after he was a late entrant in the IPL mega-auction, Sussex could still benefit from his services later in the summer. Could Archer tune up for involvement in the Ashes by firing Sussex’s Division One challenge? Down Hove way recently, stranger things have happened.