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CHIEF EXECUTIVE: ROB ANDREW
THE FUTURE OF THIS
G R E AT C LU B I S S E C U R E
I
I am really looking forward to the summer of 2022 and a return to normality after two years of Covid-affected cricket. I hope you are too.
t really is quite hard to believe what we have been through and the challenges all sports clubs and conference and events businesses have faced for two years. I was very clear at the start of the pandemic, when we had no idea what we were facing, that our priorities would be protecting the health and wellbeing of our people and ensuring that whenever the crisis ended we would be in a strong financial position to protect the long-term viability and future of this great club. I make no apologies for this strategy. Despite many challenges ahead I do believe we have achieved this and assuming a Covid-free future we can look forward to watching the next chapter in the history of Sussex cricket unfold in the coming years with a very talented group of young home-grown players. There have been some difficult decisions taken over the last two years regarding players. As always players move for lots of reasons. Sometimes we have released players for financial and performance reasons, at other times players have chosen to move on for a range of personal reasons (even if we have wanted them to stay and made good offers). We have to respect this, thank them for their time with the club, wish them well and move on. As we celebrate 150 years of cricket at Hove it is timely to remind ourselves that the club will always be bigger than any one individual, and the most important thing is protecting the future and creating opportunities for the next generation to make their mark, hopefully both with Sussex and England. With this in mind, and following the return of Jason Gillespie to a full-time role with South Australia at the end of the 2020 season, we embarked on a new strategy for the performance cricket department. This followed a presentation by Ian Salisbury and James Kirtley with their vision for the future of the club as joint head coaches. We knew we had a very talented group of young players coming through and wanted to give them opportunity, provide enough support from senior players and coaches whilst fitting in with our financial strategy. Under the direction of Keith Greenfield, our Performance Director, we have now reshaped the cricket department. Ian looks after the Championship and 50-over team, and James the T20 side. We also have specific skill coaching
