![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MFZSHSSWeL.png\")
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Former England wicketkeeper and Sussex player Matt Prior on how Sussex fell into financial disarray, and why the club’s culture must change.<\/p>\n
Matt Prior<\/a> is a Sussex man through and through.<\/p>\n It was the county who first recognised his talent when he moved to England as an 11-year-old, and where he spent all 13 years of his professional career. He won the County Championship with Sussex three times in the 2000s, before he became embedded as England\u2019s Test wicketkeeper. Now he\u2019s fighting to bring the club back from financial disaster.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me this hasn\u2019t been the last few weeks, it\u2019s been 10 years where Sussex cricket has not been run well in my view,\u201d Prior tells Wisden.com. \u201cThe culture of the club has deteriorated to a point where it\u2019s now unrecognisable\u2026 This is not just a financial thing, this is a culture that has been allowed to rot for a very very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n Sussex has been in the headlines over the last few weeks after it was placed into special measures by the ECB<\/a> over reported financial mismanagement. They were subsequently docked 12 County Championship points for the upcoming season, as well as two points each in the men\u2019s T20 Blast and One Day Cup, and signed up to an ECB business plan after recording an operating loss of \u00a3297,000 in 2024. The loss figure to be released in their upcoming accounts will be more like \u00a31million.<\/p>\n In response to the crisis, a group of passionate figures from the club, including sponsors and former players, among which Prior is a leading figure, wrote an open letter urging the club board to resign<\/a>. For Prior, however, removing the board is about more than holding those who presided over financial mismanagement to account. It\u2019s about changing the culture at the club from one that\u2019s become “poisonous”, to one of trust and transparency.<\/p>\n \u201cI caught wind around Christmas [of the crisis] but you\u2019re never quite sure what to believe,\u201d says Prior. \u201cUnfortunately this cricket club right now, the gossip and the scaremongering is just incredible, and that needs to stop.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re hearing is that people knew about this for a very long time. I\u2019ve spoken to people inside the club who have stated clearly that this is a really unnecessary thing to happen. This could have been avoided really easily with just the simplest amount of governance or challenge or leadership actually asking a question about what was actually happening. We\u2019re hearing the club didn\u2019t even have management accounts for most of the summer last year. That\u2019s just the basics, real basics.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018No one person is bigger than the club\u2019 <\/p>\n The governance story at Sussex is one reflected in other places within the county game. Well meaning leaders who care deeply about the clubs they\u2019re in charge of, but who don\u2019t necessarily have the business experience or skills to lead them through a turbulent financial landscape, are struggling through. At Sussex, according to Prior, that fear of failure has led to an administration which has eaten itself from the inside out.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one person is bigger than the club,\u201d says Prior. \u201cI think there have been people in positions, who have been looking over their shoulder and making sure that they\u2019re okay, rather than the club being okay. I think there\u2019s been a fear to get people in that can help, because they\u2019re worried that their own position will be lost. It\u2019s fiercely unfair, and it\u2019s also wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re doing is getting together an outstanding group of individuals who have had huge success in their own business lives and bring a huge amount of experience and expertise and care for the club. But we have to let them help. They want to help, but we have to let them and put the right people in the right positions first and foremost.<\/p>\n \u201cWe recognise that there are good people on that board who are doing brilliant work with disability cricket, with the foundation, those areas of the club which are actually going really well and their positions should remain. But those accountable for getting us in this mess, how they can sit there is quite incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n The effects of the financial hole Sussex are now in will be felt in every corner of the club, from members to the staff at Hove to the players. Those who are in the final year of their contracts may well be able to find more secure salaries at other counties once those opportunities can be explored from June 1. Players who signed contracts set to end in 2026 according to most club releases include rising stars at the club, like off-spinner Jack Carson<\/a>, and all-rounder James Coles<\/a>, as well as senior figures like captains John Simpson<\/a> and Tymal Mills<\/a>.<\/p>\n The timing of the crisis is at odds with Sussex\u2019s on-field performances, having been promoted from Division Two at the end of 2024 and finished in fourth in their first year of Division One last year. It\u2019s a dramatic turnaround from the club which won just two Championship games from the end of 2020 to the beginning of 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went through years with Bob Warren and Rob Andrew where they didn\u2019t spend a penny and it was terrible,\u201d says Prior. \u201cWe lost everything, we had teenagers who were really guided terribly and it was a really really poor time for Sussex Cricket\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cThis club has been mistreated for a very long time. Our agenda here is not an individual agenda, it is with Sussex Cricket at front and centre, it needs to be dealt with and handled with respect, with process with strategy and a clear level of professionalism which is going to take us forward. What I wouldn\u2019t want anyone to think is that this is just a hand grenade being thrown on a cricket club by us. It\u2019s quite the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m not trying to take anyone\u2019s job\u2019 <\/p>\n Following the initial letter sent by the group, chair Jon Filby stepped down from his position, leaving vice-chair Martin Richards to take over on an interim basis. Shortly after, John Barclay, a non-executive director and former club captain also stepped down from his position. The club called a members forum which took place on Monday (February 9), attended by Richards, as well as interim CEO Mark West and men\u2019s head coach Paul Farbrace<\/a>, to allow members to ask questions regarding the club\u2019s financial position. According to Prior, that meeting achieved little by way of transparency.<\/p>\n \u201cWithin the first 10 minutes, you knew immediately that it wasn\u2019t the right forum for an honest, transparent conversation that needs to be had,\u201d Prior says. \u201cQuestions were dodged time and time again, there was no detail. There wasn\u2019t one person from the finance department sat at the top table when all the questions were about the club\u2019s finances. I find that incredible.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are people who have to be held to account, and as a board of directors you are all in\u2026 I think people left knowing no more than when they first arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n Yesterday (February 12), Prior and a now expanded campaigning group \u2013 which includes the CEO of Webtrends Optimise, Matt Smith, a leading sponsor at the club \u2013 sent another letter, this time asking for a meeting with Richards to discuss the club\u2019s financial situation and its next steps in more detail. While the group\u2019s primary focus is to get the remaining board members to step down before the club\u2019s AGM at the end of next month, Prior is keen that the campaign is about what\u2019s best for Sussex, rather than personal agendas.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not trying to take anyone\u2019s job, and I\u2019m certainly not trying to invite myself to the party,\u201d says Prior. \u201cMy only intention here is to make Sussex CCC the club that I\u2019ve known since I was 11 years old, and back to a culture that I believe is what Sussex Cricket is all about.<\/p>\n \u201cI know people have this view that I\u2019m wanting to take over Sussex Cricket and run it myself, I think it\u2019s really important at this point that people understand that that is not why I\u2019m involved in this. I\u2019m not going to put my name forward for a position on the board. I firmly believe that Mark West needs to remain in position as CEO. And I firmly believe that Paul Farbrace needs to remain in position in his role, for the stability and the good of Sussex Cricket.\u201d<\/p>\n West is the figurehead the campaigning group have picked out to lead Sussex out of the trenches. He joined the club as interim chief executive in October 2025, two months after Pete Fitzboyden stepped down from the role. The reasons for Fitzboyden\u2019s departure have still not been made public, with \u2018personal reasons\u2019 cited at the time. Now, West \u2013 who has previously held senior roles at retail houses Stanley Gibbons and Harrods, as well as served as a trustee of the Sussex Cricket Museum, has been thrust into a difficult situation, picked by both club and campaigners as their designated leader.<\/p>\n Farbrace\u2019s position as men\u2019s head coach is also central to this story. As a trusted figure at the club, he\u2019s led them to on-field success, as part of a five-year strategy he is entering his fourth year of. He\u2019s signed key players on long-term deals and has been a clear-headed voice throughout the last couple of weeks. Speaking to The Telegraph<\/a> yesterday (February 12), he described a club in \u201cshambles\u201d, and said he would be willing to accept redundancy if it meant keeping his playing group together. However, as a big figure on the county-coaching circuit, his salary reflects his standing. Given the restrictions on player and staff salaries at the club, his would be a big chunk to take out of that.<\/p>\n These are details that Prior and the rest of the letter\u2019s signatories are keen to iron out as soon as possible. At least six members of the board will see their terms come to an end at the club\u2019s AGM at the end of March. However, given the proximity to the season, that will give little time to establish stability off and on the field.<\/p>\n \u201cThey [the board] have made decisions which have put this cricket club into a really bad position,\u201d says Prior. \u201cIf there were players not scoring runs, there would be decisions made on them immediately. They don\u2019t get to say \u2018I\u2019m retiring at the end of the year so I\u2019ll just play a couple more months\u2019 \u2013 so why should the board do it? The arrogance to go \u2018we\u2019re going to go to the AGM and choose our moment to walk off into the sunset\u2019, actually you have to be held to account.<\/p>\n \u201cThe other thing, quite frankly, is time. We can\u2019t just wait another month. That\u2019s not in the best interest of Sussex Cricket. The fixtures have come out, the team are playing warm-up matches while that [the AGM] is going on, and they\u2019re into the season the week after the AGM. We don\u2019t really want all of this kicking off then. We want Mark West to be able to focus on the important matters at hand, and getting into the business of moving the club forward, not having to deal with all of this and dragging that on for another month and a half.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to draw a line in the sand now and we need to be able to put the right people in the right places to support Mark West to get the club out of this mess.\u201d<\/p>\n While the picture at Sussex is to some extent unique because of how vocal the group campaigning have been, and a history at the club of coups and governance instability over the last three decades, it fits into the wider picture of struggling non-Hundred host counties, at a time where cash from franchise sales should be hitting the game.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of counties that are struggling, I\u2019m not suggesting that other boards are at fault or anything like that,\u201d says Prior. \u201cBut there needs to be an injection into the game because county cricket is so important to so many people and needs to be protected and looked after, because the game is moving forward at a rate of knots.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019re not careful, it\u2019s going to be left behind. That\u2019s why we\u2019re so keen that Sussex isn\u2019t one of those clubs and we want to put the necessary things in place that give it the best chance.\u201d<\/p>\n Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores<\/a>, match stats, quizzes<\/a> and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news<\/a>, player updates, team standings,<\/a> match highlights, video analysis<\/a> and live match odds<\/a>.<\/p>\n Matt PriorCover StoriesTrending StoriesEnglish CricketCover Stories UK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former England wicketkeeper and Sussex player Matt Prior on how Sussex fell into financial disarray, and why the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-424959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}