Sussex Cricket: a new era

After a nine-year absence from the top flight of domestic cricket, Sussex secured promotion to Division One of the Vitality County Championship last month and there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the club’s future, both on and off the pitch.

At the time of writing, Sussex County Cricket Club has secured promotion to the top division of the domestic pyramid and are within 4 points of winning the Division Two title going into their final game of the season against Middlesex.

In recent years, performances on the pitch have been a far cry from what many who follow the club call the ‘golden era’ of the early 2000s – but that has all changed.

The club’s decision to bring in former England and Sri Lanka front man Paul Farbrace has arguably been their most important call in their recent history.

Financially, the club is arguably in a better position than the vast majority of their 17 first-class counties, however many would say that came at the cost of success on the pitch.

In an unforgiving economic climate post-Covid, tough decisions had to be taken by the hierarchy, switching to a policy of promoting youth into the first-team and allowing many of the stars of previous team’s to move on to bigger counties.

Fast-forward three years the club is now beginning to see the benefits of those difficult decisions and is thriving in so many ways.

The new Chief Executive, Pete Fitzboydon, is leading a brand-new commercial strategy that will see the club seek to make even more use of the prime real-estate that they own in Hove, primarily by expanding the club’s non-cricketing events over the winter.

The new Tate Residents and commercial outlets, a project led by the former Chief Executive, Rob Andrew, have safeguarded the club’s finances for many years to come and that in itself presents Sussex Cricket with even more opportunities for commercial expansion.

Pete Fitzboydon spoke of the investment the organisation is making: “We are investing a lot in the staff team to make sure we capitalise on the on-field success, getting into a positive cycle of growth rather than the slightly stagnated picture I saw when I took over.

“On-field success does not guarantee off-field commercial growth – nor vice versa – but in the well-run organisation we are developing I am confident that the two will live off each other and help the club reach new heights.”

As well as thriving Men’s First-Team, the recent announcement that the club will now have a Women’s First-Team based at The 1st Central County Ground, alongside the men, on equal footing, is yet another reason for the local community to be excited about the journey the organisation is on.

A new team brings a new audience and with that more sponsorship opportunities and a chance for local partners and companies to join the journey.

It is undoubtedly a new era for  Sussex Cricket.