8 minute read
Chief Executive: Rob Andrew
THE FUTURE OF THIS GREAT CLUB IS SECURE
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.
It 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
THE 2022 SEASON IS UNDERWAY WITH SUSSEX HOSTING SURREY IN A FRIENDLY ON 23 MARCH
roles for seam and spin bowling and believe this is a good balance to have in modern times.
We have strengthened the coaching group with the appointment of Grant Flower as lead batting coach, and given greater commitment to Ash Wright and Sarah Taylor in their respective coaching roles. We are also delighted to welcome back Mike Yardy who will take up a new role as Academy Director. With this group we feel we have a very strong set-up to guide our talented youngsters to great things. It feels exciting and we are all looking forward to the journey. We very much hope you will enjoy it too and get behind the club as we rebuild. To help us along the way we are also delighted to welcome back Chris Adams and Tony Cottey to our cricket committee. Their knowledge and experience will be invaluable, and we are all looking forward to their input.
The structure of domestic cricket has once again been in the spotlight since the disappointing Ashes. I always find it ironic when the counties get blamed for the failure of an Ashes series despite the fact that the current structure, with the introduction of The Hundred, has pushed the Championship even further to the fringes of the season. Also, most of the players are on central contract so we have hardly seen them for the last two years, especially with the amount of red and white-ball international cricket that is played. As far more qualified people than I have commented, it does seem like many of the players have not improved while being away with England squads. There have been further changes to the England management set-up and we will watch with interest how the strategies are developed over the coming months and also the proposed red ball re-set for the domestic game.
These are difficult issues to resolve, especially with the white ball franchise explosion around the world and the riches on offer for the best performers in this format. There are calls for the franchising of county cricket. This was always one of the major concerns following the introduction of The Hundred, and it appears that risk hasn’t gone away. The First-Class Counties (FCC) must resist
TWO STALWARTS OF PAST SUCCESS - CHRIS ADAMS (CENTRE) AND TONY COTTEY (SECOND RIGHT) - WILL BRING THEIR EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE TO THE CRICKET COMMITTEE
this at all cost. Reducing the size of the professional footprint across England and Wales is not the way to grow the game. There may well be ways to improve the structure and that debate is for another day. The FCCs work tirelessly to grow the game in their communities across a whole range of activity including women and girls’ cricket, disability cricket and many more. This would all be destroyed if the number of counties were reduced.
To underline the great work we do in the community, I recommend that you take a few minutes to review the Sussex Cricket Foundation 2021 Impact Report. During 2020 and 2021, and despite the pandemic, Gary Wallis-Tayler, our Community Cricket Director, and the team worked brilliantly not only to keep cricket on but ensure that we continue to grow all forms of the game across the county. In particular we are very pleased with the growth of the women and girls’ game and our disability programmes. More and more clubs and participants are getting involved in our great game and hopefully this will give them a lifelong love of the sport. In addition to our other community programmes, we were also delighted to announce our two urban plans for Crawley and Brighton. Over the next few years we will look to grow the sport further and make it inclusive to everyone.
All our planning and decision making has been done against a backdrop of the Covid pandemic. This has created financial challenges, but we have been prudent and looked to protect the long-term future of the club. The club did take advantage of a government-backed loan and have worked closely with our bank, Barclays, throughout this period. We will consider where we are at the end of the 2022 season but assuming a reasonably normal trading summer we do not expect to need to use the loan, and we can move out of the pandemic period still carrying no debt and in a strong position to move forward.
To strengthen the finances of the club we embarked on a major masterplan development in 2021. Phase 1 consists of a mixed-use development at the entrance to the ground comprising 37 apartments, a new pub and three floors of commercial office space. You will notice an amazing change at the front as phase 1 comes out of the ground. We are also delighted to report that all 37
apartments have been sold and the pub has been pre-let on a 25-year lease. There are 12,000 sq ft of commercial offices to let and marketing for these will take place in the spring with the intention of agreeing a letting later in the year, well before completion. We expect completion of the phase 1 in the first quarter of 2023. During 2022 we will consider our plans for phase 2 which involves the creation of a five-star conference and hospitality venue on the site of the current club offices.
The club will retain the freehold of the development and the commercial elements of the scheme as a long-term asset, providing an annual revenue and creating a capital asset owned by the club.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of Sussex County Cricket Club playing at Hove following the first match here against Gloucestershire in 1872. To mark this incredible anniversary, we have given the pavilion a makeover to celebrate this anniversary and reflect on the remarkable history of the club. I hope you enjoy the changes we have made and let us also hope that someone is still celebrating cricket at Hove in another 150 years!
I would like to thank our members, supporters, partners and colleagues for all their support over the last 12 months. Without their love for the club we would not be in the position to look forward to the next few years with real optimism. There will be challenges but we have put ourselves in the best place possible to meet those together. I am really looking forward to the summer of 2022, lets embrace what it brings and enjoy the ride.
Finally, I want to add a personal thank you to our retiring chairman, Bob Warren. Bob took over in March 2017, not long after I joined, and has been a tower of strength as we have tackled the challenges of the last few years. He has served the club selflessly and driven forward change in lots of areas, most notably our governance structure, while fighting hard with the ECB to maintain the 18-county system. We owe him a huge debt of gratitude for all he has done for cricket in Sussex.
