It is easy to forget about the off-field, off-season turmoil at Sussex when you stroll through the gates at Hove – much like how standing in the sunshine of a spring morning a week or so out from the start of the County Championship can momentarily inure you from the biting reality of a chill March breeze.
Members have been vocal in their frustrations, amid demands for a wholesale change in leadership, while Sussex’s players have spoken of their anger at starting the new season with points deductions in all three competitions. Having lived beyond their means (Sussex also recorded a near-£300,000 loss in 2024), the imposition of spending controls could see the playing and coaching staff raided by other counties over the course of the summer.
That is the backdrop as Paul Farbrace, Sussex’s head coach, assembles his squad for what may be their last hurrah. On arrival in 2023, Farbrace set out a five-year plan at the end of which the club hoped to have won their first Championship pennant since 2007 (as well as attended Blast Finals Day twice, winning the trophy at least once). That timeline has now been truncated by 12 months, with Farbrace declaring it is “now or never” for the current squad to deliver silverware.
It is in keeping with Farbrace’s methods, having overseen promotion in his second season and immediately pushed his players to deliver a top-four finish on their return to Division One after a decade’s absence. They duly delivered, although it was not long before a sense of satisfaction was replaced by trepidation at what might be to come.
Once again, Farbrace has stepped in with a rallying cry. “It is very much now or never,” he said. “That is something we have talked about. We have known about this since early December.
“My selling point to the players has been that this is our year to really do something special because there is no guarantee come the end of the season that we will have the squad or coaching staff we have. A lot has to go right for us as a club to keep our current playing squad together. This is the year. Let’s not waste the opportunity. We have a squad capable of challenging and this could be our last year together.”
The fire sale that Sussex supporters fear may in fact play out mid-season, with Farbrace admitting the period when rival counties are allowed to start making approaches to out-of-contract players, from June 1, could be a “tricky spell to manage”. John Simpson, the wicketkeeper and club captain who has topped the batting averages in each of the last two seasons, tallying more than 2200 runs in the process, is one of 11 players whose deals are set to run out, while the likes of James Coles and and Jack Carson are only under contract until 2027.
“Naturally there was a bit of anger. Fundamentally it’s out of our control. We’ve got to accept what’s happened and move forward. As Farby mentioned, in adversity hopefully we can have a really special year, give it a good crack in every competition and finish the season with a couple of trophies”
John Simpson
“We do have all our financial issues that we’ve got to deal with,” Farbrace added. “But we have the best squad that we’ve had for a number of years. We’ve got a very rounded group of cricketers who have got a real point to prove. It would be really easy for me to say, ‘We’re pleased to be in Division One’. Last year people talked about it being nice to be in Division One but it’s going to be a challenge to stay there. Yes, of course it is. But we want to play against the best teams and players on a regular basis.
“If we start talking about just wanting to survive, I’m letting the players off the hook before the season has even started. And the one thing I’ve done from the moment I arrived is to talk about the expectation to win and the expectation to perform.
“We’ve got a lot of skill, we’ve got a lot of resilience, we’ve got a really close dressing room where everyone gets on well, but they are starting to be a bit tougher with one another, when people are stepping out of line or not doing what they should be doing. And that happens because we have fantastic role models and leaders and senior players.”
It says plenty for the challenge of the smaller counties like Sussex, who do not host international men’s cricket or a team in the Hundred, that only a few years ago their position was reversed – thriftily balancing the books while trusting in players produced by the academy, but languishing in the depths of Division Two (across three seasons from 2020 to 2022, they won just three first-class games).
The deckchairs were out for the start of the season at Hove•Getty Images
On the field, there has been a complete turnaround – although it is impossible to avoid the point that increased spending on players contributed to their financial issues. Sussex had already strengthened for this season before the ECB took control of their budgets, signing Tom Price – one of the county game’s most promising allrounders – and Dom Goodman from Gloucestershire, as well as experienced batter Jack Leaning from Kent, and there is no short of talent at Hove.With Ollie Robinson, now captain of the Championship side, eager to push his case for an England recall by taking a hatful of wickets, allrounder Coles the hottest pick at the Hundred auction earlier this month, and opener Tom Haines hoping to make the next step up after captaining England Lions over the winter, Sussex have (for now) the resources to compete.
They will not be helped by starting their Division One campaign on minus-12 points, but Simpson echoed Farbrace in hoping that the trials of the last few months can galvanize Sussex’s push for silverware.
“Naturally there was a bit of anger, for a few weeks,” he said of the points penalties. “Fundamentally it’s out of our control. We’ve got to accept what’s happened and it’s [about] how we move forward. As Farby mentioned, in adversity hopefully we can have a really special year, give it a good crack in every competition and finish the season with a couple of trophies.
“That’s what we’re focusing on. We owe it to each other as a group of players to make sure we’re accountable for our performances and we want to continue to play good cricket. I’m very keen for the lads to be focused on cricket rather than worried about off-field noise.”
The noise may have died down as the new season approaches: Sussex’s AGM earlier in the week passed without incident, as a number of changes to the board were agreed. The rebels who have agitated for greater accountability among the club’s management, led by former Sussex greats Matt Prior and Chris Adams, appear content to bide their time – though Prior did respond to one appeal from a Sussex supporter on X by saying: “Change is coming! It HAS to!”
Nearly 30 years on from the “deckchair revolution”, there is foment beneath the surface at Hove. Even a tilt at the Championship title may not prevent another uprising.
Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick