Sussex cricket chief reveals frustrations over 2022 season – and excitement for future

He says that was a major factor that hit Sussex’s hopes of success in 2022 – particularly in the T20 Blast.

Counties will often clinch deals to bring in top international players for a set period of the English season – only for international commitments to change and arrangements to fall through.

The scheduling of international fixtures has been a topic of debate for many years now. They take massive priority over county cricket – and Sussex have struggled with it.

They flopped in the Blast in 2022 – failing to make the knockout stages – and had a tough year in the county championship, although on a brighter note they did reach the semi-finals of the Royal London One Day Cup.

“I think it comes back to one of the biggest challenges we have in English cricket and that is the schedule and how do you schedule in the modern cricketing world, where there are so many competing demands for these players, particularly at the level,” Andrew said in an interview with the club.

“Even when you think that you’ve got them [high calibre players], International boards or the ICC will throw something in at the very last minute.”

“From a planning point of view, it has become more and more difficult, and I don’t think that it is going to get any easier.”

Andrew insists this is something Sussex Cricket as well as other counties across the country are trying to change. “We are all looking at how we can best do that [make change to scheduling issues] because you still need the consistency of a team and a group of players.”

The T20 campaign at Hove was a major competition that saw the effects of the international scheduling take their toll.

“The T20 campaign was frustrating from the point of view of what we thought was going to be the availability of players at the start of the season when we signed them then didn’t turn out to be the case,” Andrew claimed.

Notably, players like Mohammed Rizwan, Rashid Khan and Josh Phillipe were all taken away from Sussex at various times through the season which could have cost the side from hitting the heights they hoped to reach.

“We thought we had [Mohammed] Rizwan for most of the campaign, we thought we had Rashid [Khan] for most of the campaign. When we signed them in the winter, they were available, It was only because of Covid issues and back-filling of international matches that then suddenly they got taken away from us.

"Even Josh Phillipe, who was going to be available for the whole campaign, then got called into an Australia A Squad even when they told us they weren’t going to do that.” Andrew said.

“It did become difficult and frustrating and although the guys that came in clearly did their best, we ended up probably chopping and changing the side too much through that campaign and it never really got any sort of momentum”

The season wasn’t all negative for Sussex. The RL50 campaign was remarkably successful with the experienced players that were brought in having a real impact on the squad. This led to the team topping their group.

Andrew said: “We played some wonderful cricket, and we were worthy of being winners of our group. That will hopefully give our players more confidence going into next year. When you’re building a team, these things take time and you have to go step by step.”

Andrew is hopeful some of the younger players in the squad will now kick on: “Hopefully for some of the young players, it will also give them the confidence to go into the T20 side next year which is obviously part of their development and part of the plan as well.”

Some of the signings made by the club were undoubted successes. Andrew believes there is excitement around the future of the side – helped by the recent announcement that Indian batting star Cheteshwar Pujara has signed on for 2023.

“It’s huge news because he is one of the world’s best batters.” Andrew said. “Watching him bat last season I think everybody could see he loved being here, he’s a massive influence in the dressing room. He gave confidence through the whole of the batting line-up, and it is the best batting line-up since I’ve been here.”

Pujara’s signing is a massive statement for Sussex with him currently one of the biggest talents in the cricket world. The signing could be a massive step in changing the team’s fortunes for next season and pushing on being more successful in the long run.

Looking forward to next season, a development project at the 1st Central County Ground also has brought excitement for the future. Andrew said he couldn’t thank the club’s sponsors and members enough for their support.

“Our sponsors and members have been amazing over the past three years because let’s be honest it has been a tough three years. People have really stuck by us, so we are incredibly pleased with that,” he said.

“Hopefully, there will be big changes at the ground and people will see the ground taking shape for the future just as I hope we can see the team taking shape for the future as well.”