For once optimism isn’t in short supply at Hove ahead of the new cricket season – and it’s not just because the sun has made a belated appearance and there’s finally a hint of warmth in the air.
Twenty years after they first won domestic cricket’s blue riband – the County Championship – there was an unmistakably positive mood when Paul Farbrace and his players met the media last week ahead of the first match against Durham, which starts at Hove tomorrow (Thursday 6 April).
There’s no chance of Sussex repeating the biggest achievement in their history 20 years on. You’ve got to be in Division One for starters. But after years of underachievement in four-day cricket, things finally seem to be moving in the right direction.
Even the bookmakers agree. Some have Sussex 4-1 second favourites for promotion behind Yorkshire which seems a tad optimistic when you consider they have only won one Championship game in each of the last three seasons.
When Sussex made the decision to back home-produced players and shave £300k off their wage bill in the post-covid world by getting rid of some of their high-earning but under-achieving players, they couldn’t have expected their Championship team to struggle quite as much as it did. But there we are – and new head coach Paul Farbrace is certainly not someone for looking backwards.
Getting a coach of his experience was quite a coup for chairman Jon Filby and CEO Rob Andrew. He rebuffed Sussex’s first approach last autumn but changed his mind when Filby assured him that he would have total control of professional cricket.
There is no director of cricket at Hove any more and Keith Greenfield has gone back to ensuring the production line of talent from the pathway and local schools continues. No one has been at Sussex longer than Greenfield, who first played for the club in 1987. A development role is where his strengths lie.
Chatting to some of the players last week, Farbrace already seems to have earned their respect. He has also made some important strategic decisions, not least making Cheteshwar Pujara Championship captain.
It means that Tom Haines can concentrate on perhaps becoming England’s next Test opener. He’s also asked the groundstaff to prepare pitches at Hove that give bowlers a bit more of a chance.
Farbrace might also be a lucky coach, which is no bad thing. Last season Sussex were often scrambling around to field a decent attack, as the signing of four bowlers on short-term loan deals attests.
Not this year. Left-armer George Garton, who has missed the best part of two years after a diagnosis of long covid turned out to be a treatable blood clot, off-spinner Jack Carson and all-rounder Fynn Hudson-Prentice are all fit.
Last season’s leading wicket-taker was Sean Hunt with 18. Someone ought to go past that meagre total by the end of April.
Sussex only bowled a team out twice on one occasion last year. That was the main reason why they only won a single game.
This season Farbrace ought to be able to rotate his bowling attack and he’ll also be able to call upon two top bowlers he knows better than most.
Ollie Robinson – Farbrace’s stepson – will play three or four games as part of his Ashes build-up while Nathan McAndrew, who learned about bowling in England under Farbrace at Warwickshire last year, looks a shrewd acquisition.
McAndrew will also lengthen the batting which could have Robinson, who has made a first-class hundred remember, as low as ten.
There are fewer concerns about the top six. Persuading Pujara to return is a massive boost and Farbrace has made another good move in appointing Tom Alsop, who was consistent after turning his loan from Hampshire into a permanent move last year, as vice-captain.
Alsop can expect to lead the team when Pujara goes off to play for India in the World Test Championship in June.
Haines, Ali Orr and Tom Clark should all be aiming to score at least 1,000 runs while it will be a hard decision for Farbrace and Pujara to decide who keeps wicket between Ollie Carter and Charlie Tear. Both can bat too and will probably slot in at six or seven in the order.
Although it’s unlikely Sussex supporters will see much of Jofra Archer – there is a chance he might play one Championship game at the end of May if Mumbai Indians are eliminated before the IPL’s knockout stages – one superstar is definitely heading to Hove.
Steve Smith’s Ashes build-up will include three games for Sussex in May, one of which is against Glamorgan at Hove when his Australian compatriot Marnus Labuschagne will be in the opposition team.
Surely a team with Smith, Pujara and Robinson ought to get Sussex over the line a few times in the first half of the Championship campaign.
We’ll see. To this observer, preparing to cover the county for a 35th season, it doesn’t feel like a false dawn.
Providing they steer clear of injuries, Sussex will certainly be competitive and if they can get a couple of wins early then momentum will build, just like it did in 2003.
Back then Sussex had a proven match-winner in Mushtaq Ahmed. I don’t see someone like him in 2023 and county cricket has changed beyond recognition in that time.
But, just as was the case in 2003, we might just be at the start of a promising new era at Sussex.
Follow Bruce on Twitter @brucetalbot1.
