Sussex CCC: County to prioritise Championship, says head coach Paul Farbrace
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Paul Farbrace (centre bottom) has lost the released T20 captain Ravi Bopara and the retired Steven Finn from his Sussex squad for 2024
Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace says the club will make "no apologies" for prioritising the County Championship.
The Hove-based county finished third to miss out on promotion from Division Two of the Championship last season.
In the white-ball formats, Sussex finished bottom of their One-Day Cup group and in the bottom half of their T20 Blast group.
"Our priorities are Championship, first and foremost, then T20 and then 50-over cricket," Farbrace said.
Speaking to BBC Radio Sussex he added: "We make no apologies for putting them in that order but that is where we are at."
Sussex announced the signings of India's Cheteshwar Pujara and Australia's Daniel Hughes as their two overseas batters for next season, while former England international, and Sussex T20 captain, Ravi Bopara did not have his T20 contract with the county renewed for 2024.
India international, Pujara, will play the first seven Championship matches of the campaign, while Hughes, in his first stint in English cricket, will play the entirety of the T20 Blast and the remaining seven Championship games.
"Pujara's calmness and high quality technique allow him to score runs in the early part of the season," Farbrace added.
"There would be a lot of overseas (players) that would be a risk in April and May.
"He knows these pitches and his game is suited to England.
"There's no question that when he went away in the middle of (last) summer and we had two overseas bowlers in that period, it did expose our batting order.
"That's why we have gone to great lengths to make sure we have got an experienced overseas batter in our team for all 14 of the upcoming Championship games."
Cheteshwar Pujara has played in both the 2022 and 2023 seasons for Sussex
Hughes, who won the 2020 and 2021 Big Bash League in Australia with Sydney Sixers, will be joined for the Blast competition by fellow Australian Nathan McAndrew and West Indies' Jayden Seales.
"Any overseas player that brings quality not only as a player and a person to you dressing room is always a huge an advantage. We haven't got he budget to have players in all three formats so we prioritised the Championship and T20 cricket," Farbrace added.
"It's a sensible way to go and it means in the 50-over competition that our players will get maximum opportunity.
"This year's 50-over competition was a huge disappointment, following on from when the team got to the final, so there is a lot of work to do around our white-ball cricket.
"We had a lot of players playing this year that haven't played an awful lot of T20 cricket - in some cases none at all.
"We know that even in T20 we are not going to be as strong as we were this year and we've lost Ravi Bopara, who has scored an awful lot of runs and taken a lot of wickets - plus his experience."