Paul Farbrace: Sussex head coach insists he will not leave for Kent role

Paul Farbrace won the T20 World Cup in 2014 when he was head coach of Sri Lanka

Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace has denied speculation he could become Kent's new director of cricket.

The Canterbury side are looking for a replacement for Paul Downton, who will retire at the end of the season after six years in the role.

Former Sri Lanka boss Farbrace joined Sussex last December and has targeted promotion to Division One.

Asked by BBC Radio Sussex if he would be moving to Kent, Farbrace responded: "Definitely not. I'm staying here."

He added: "There is a project here that really excited me, and I see no reason to walk away from that project.

"I want to see that project through because I think we have some really good players.

"Provided I don't get shown the door here in the next few days, my plan is to stay here."

Sussex have lost five of their six games in their ongoing One-Day Cup campaign, but remain in with a chance of returning to the top tier of the County Championship despite winning just one of their 10 red-ball matches so far this season.

"I knew it was going to be a tough job and that was the thing that appealed to me," the 56-year-old said.

"We need to find a way to get the team full of confidence and winning games of cricket."

Farbrace was born in Kent and began his playing career with his home county before moving to Middlesex in 1990.

He won the T20 World Cup in 2014 when he was head coach of Sri Lanka and served as assistant coach to then-England head coach Trevor Bayliss from 2015 to 2019.

During his time in charge at Kent, Downton guided the club to promotion to Division One of the County Championship and the final of the One-Day Cup in 2018.

The Spitfires won the T20 Blast in 2021 and followed that up by lifting the One-Day Cup last year.

One-Day Cup performance 'really poor'

Meanwhile, Farbrace says Sussex were "embarrassed" during their One-Day Cup defeat by Gloucestershire on Friday, which the Hove outfit lost by 166 runs.

The visitors scored 311 all out in a game shortened to 38 overs a side because of rain, and the Sharks were dismissed for 145 in 25.1 overs in reply.

"We were out-batted, out-bowled and out-fielded," Farbrace added.

"I can take losing - and I've chatted about losing a fair bit in this competition so far - but that was probably the worst of the lot.

"We limped through a batting performance that was just not good enough. We haven't competed.

"That is a really poor performance and we are not going to hide from that.

"This is a day everyone has to look at themselves and say 'What did I contribute? How can I get better?'. That is every single one of us."