Mushtaq holds the key
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Revolving door
Peter Moores, now ECB Academy
head coach, is replaced by Mark
Robinson, styled professional
cricket manager while Keith
Greenfield is performance
director. Ian Ward has taken up
full-time TV presenting and Tim
Ambrose gone to Edgbaston to
pursue his keeping; hence Andrew
Hodd's return from Surrey.
Winter wonderland
What Ashes factor? The club
lost £631,366 in the year ending
October 31, 2005. Indeed, the
chairman David Green insists it
has become "virtually impossible"
for any county not staging
international cricket to win
trophies and still turn a profit.
Strengths
Varied attack; experienced
batsmen; the most irresistible
twirler the circuit has boasted for
a good few decades.
Weaknesses
Questionable middle order; Luke
Wright apart, scant evidence of
quicks to push the old-timers.
Best-case scenario
A second Championship pennant
as Mushtaq Ahmed tops the
wicket-grabbers' table for a fourth
consecutive summer; James
Kirtley shakes the throwing
monkey off his back; Mike Yardy
shrugs off a modest A tour; Carl
Hopkinson finds the centuries
to complement his fielding; and
Chris Adams cunningly persuades
Pakistan's selectors that Rana
Naved-ul-Hasan's superb county
figures last year were illusory.
Worst-case scenario
Relegation in both leagues as
`Mushie' breaks a finger or gets
side-tracked by talk of a full-time
coaching job with Pakistan.
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Young one to watch
Luke Wright.
Key man
Mushtaq Ahmed.
What they say
Robinson says he intends to back
youth to fill the void left by Ward's
retirement. Murray Goodwin
and Richard Montgomerie have
forged the club's most consistent
opening pair of recent times, he
emphasises, further stressing
that the top six boasts five capped
players. Which leaves, as Robinson
sees it, a posse of young pretenders
in Hopkinson (who impressed in
the second half of last term, not
least with one staggering catch
that Sky Sports captured in all its
gobsmacking splendour), Chris
Nash, Neil Turk and Sean Heather.
Money saved on Ward, who left
with two years to run on his
contract, has been earmarked to
help pay for a replacement import
if/when Rana joins Pakistan.
Mark Wagh
Based around an excellent
partnership between coach
Peter Moores and Chris Adams,
Sussex have been a powerful side in
the last few years. However, with the
departure of Moores, and Kirtley's
remodelled action, this could be a
more testing season. A controversial
selection for Championship
relegation but Division One will be
exceptionally competitive.
Predictions County Championship 8th (D1) Pro40 3rd (D1)
Odds 13/2. Click here for full odds and to place your bet.