With fans angry, board resignations and a prized player joining a richer local rival, it’s a story more familiar to Premier League football than county cricket.
Sussex supporters have become accustomed to losing players during Rob Andrew’s seven-year spell as CEO. Popular cricketers Luke Wells, Ben Brown and recently George Garton have all left for pastures new, much to some annoyance and confusion.
But Monday’s announcement that batting star Ali Orr would join Sussex’s ‘El Clasicoast’ rivals Hampshire sparked rare anger among an already restless fanbase and saw two former captains relinquish their roles at the club.
Orr was at the forefront of a new generation of Sussex players who came into the first team as youngsters due to the departure of more experienced heads. He is a 22-year-old local boy, born and raised in Eastbourne, educated at the prolific Bede’s School and graduated from the academy. A first-class average, a tick under 40, is such that some good judges consider him a Test prospect.
But despite having another year to run on his contract, he has followed Brown down the M27 to bigger-money rivals with a Test Ground and a Hundred team, having signed a three-year deal.
Orr’s final year at Sussex was Paul Farbrace’s first as head coach. The player had a frustrating year due to injury, while results improved under Farbrace, who spoke out about his desire to add experience to the squad.
At times Farbrace was publicly critical of the players, and the beginning of the end for Orr at Sussex appears to have been a Championship match at Derby in September when the pair had a clash. Orr is said to have reacted to his dismissal with crude, adrenaline-filled anger (as batsmen often do), and in response Farbrace reprimanded him in front of teammates and staff. Farbrace acknowledges there was a row, but attributes Orr’s departure to the player’s agent’s desire to improve his contract terms.
‘We had a collision’
“We had a clash in the Derby game,” Farbrace said. “But we talked and as far as I’m concerned it was settled. I have no bad feeling towards Ali.
“At the end of the season, his agent wanted to extend his contract. I said we would like to extend it for two years, on top of the year he had left, but we don’t have enough money to increase the salary.
“As a result we gave him ten days to see if he could find something else, and in that period he found a contract with Hampshire. We have since negotiated compensation with Hampshire.
“We don’t want to lose him. We want it to open in all formats. But we cannot improve his conditions because we do not have the finances to do so.
“We could have let him continue for another season but I didn’t think that was the right thing for Ali or the club. You could let a player think for two months about reaching June 1 and talk to other clubs. That’s for neither party is a good place to be.”
In an interview with the BBC, Sussex chairman Jon Filby admitted that there is “tension between coaches and players at all times” and “that this is probably one of the ‘catalysts’ that encouraged Ali to think the grass was greener elsewhere. ”
‘Nothing to do with money’
Those who know him say Orr — about whom few have a bad word to say — may have struggled to move on from Farbrace after the feud.
Meanwhile, Alan Wells, the former Sussex captain and father of Luke, who coached Orr at Bede’s, said on Monday on X that the move had “nothing to do with money”. In a rare appearance on social media, Wells Snr described himself as “completely stunned by the way Sussex have managed to let go of one of the best young cricketers to have played for Sussex in recent years?”
The tweet captured the mood of Sussex fans. Former England wicketkeeper Matt Prior – a vocal critic of the club under Andrew – described it as an “absolute shocker AGAIN from Sussex”, while club legend Chris Nash joined him in describing it as a “concern” and “not a good look. ”
It was no coincidence that Ian “Gunner” Gould, the former Sussex wicketkeeper who became a top international umpire, resigned from his positions on the Hove board and the cricket committee in the hours following the announcement. On Tuesday morning, Championship-winning captain Chris Adams informed the club that he would also be stepping down from the cricket committee, which is designed to advise and challenge the club’s coaching staff.
Neither man has spoken publicly about why they quit. In an interview with the BBC, Filby said: “I don’t think that’s entirely true,” – that they had stepped back based on Orr’s move, adding: “They’ve both talked to me about their frustrations about their role. ”
Clearly, the Orr incident can be considered the straw that broke the camel’s back. Although Gould and Adams, as Filby says, had long been concerned about the need for the committee while Farbrace was in charge – it had met only a handful of times this year – and had considered their positions, they also did not want to see the step to endorse.
“The cricket decisions are made entirely by Paul Farbrace,” Filby said. “I am very pleased that the right model for Sussex is to find the best person we can to run our cricket.
“Ian helped us move to a one-coach model, but he found it frustrating not to be involved in all the decision-making. That is why he has decided that being a board member is not for him.
“It was a similar level of frustration with Chris. He didn’t want to be associated with decisions that weren’t his decisions.”
Whether the move came because of a falling out, a desire for more money or both, Filby was right when he said it is “clearly a vote of confidence in Paul Farbrace.” Farbrace will be without Orr next season but has added experienced Australian opener Daniel Hughes for half of the campaign.
Filby added that “Sussex cricket has never been in better shape than it is now”, a statement that some fans – hoping Orr will not be the first of a new wave of departures – may disagree with.