Simpson and Mills picked to lead Sussex – but changes may follow
Ahead of the new County Championship season in April and the T20 Blast in May, Sussex CCC head coach Paul Farbrace has named his captains for the two competitions. And the skipper for a third contest is under close consideration.
New signing John Simpson will take on the role for the County Championship and Tymal Mills for the T20.
Sussex will also speak to Tom Haines about the captaincy for 50-overs cricket – a job he has done before, and at which he had great success in the 2022 run to the semi-finals
Speaking to the Sussex Cricket website and Youtube channel, Farbrace spoke about his choice to hand Simpson, recently recruited from Middlesex, the role.
“We’re going with John Simpson to do the Championship side and John is going to do the first seven games,” he said.
"And the reason we’ve gone for the first seven games only, and it’s as much his decision as ours, is that he wants to make sure he’s absolutely the right person to be the captain.
"He also wants to make sure that it allows him to be the player that he wants to be, both as a keeper and as a batter.
"So, I think it’s a very sensible decision.
"There’s a natural break after seven games in the Championship anyway, so that fits really nicely.”
This means that Simpson will captain Sussex for games against Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Gloucestershire, Derbyshire, Glamorgan, Yorkshire and former club Middlesex before Farbrace reviews things – and potentially makes a change – in June.
Farbrace heaped similar praise on Mills after naming the veteran short-form fast bowler his captain for the T20 Blast, taking the role from Ravi Bopara, who left the club at the end of last season.
Farbrace admitted that the T20 World Cup could force a change of plan for Sussex.
Farbrace said: “Tymal Mills is going to be our T20 captain.
"Ty worked extremely closely with Ravi last year, he is full of experience.
"The only thing that we did think about, and I’m sure people will point to, is the T20 World Cup is on at the same time as the T20 Blast and so there is a chance that Ty will be selected to play for England.
"If he is, then we’ll reassess that situation, but for now, Ty is going to take on the T20 captaincy role.”
Pleased with his captaincy choices, Farbrace finished by saying: “As I say, they’re two excellent choices.
"They’re two people that really want to do the job, they’re two people with a vast amount of experience and knowledge, and they’ve also got a lot of respect in our club, within our dressing room and people want to play for them. I think they’re really good choices.”
Haines is a contender to be skipper of the Metro Bank One Day Cup side again this year.
Farbrace said the club had begun discussions with the batsman about the role and would continue those talks when he returned from a spell playing in India.