'Sussex v Leicestershire - Behind the Scenes at Hove'
________________________________________________________________________
The Sussex CCC media centre is a hive of busyness during a home game, where there is rarely a dull moment between the tapping of a computer keyboard, the sound of a chirping birdie to signify a twitter arrival or a shrilling mobile call from a stressed editor awaiting copy.
Marketing Manager, Tom Rose, and the No.2 club media officer behind Adam Matthews, who has been featured regularly on this blog, was tucked away in a corner manning the social media stockade.
Giving Blood - Challenge No.2
We had a brief chat from which I discovered: Tom finally raised £550 from his recent Marathon run for ‘The Sussex Cricket Foundation’; of his 54 ‘Out of Your Comfort’ challenges, his favourite, too date, has been an open mic night where he played guitar; one of his future ambitions is to climb a mountain - Mount Everest is, perhaps, a challenge too far - but Ben Nevis at 1,345 metres high or Snowdonia at a little less 1,085 is more feasible.
On Friday, Tom travelled up to London to attend ‘The UK Blogs Award 2016’ where he was shortlisted for his own ‘Out of Your Comfort Zone’ blog. Unfortunately, he neither won or was commended. He wrote: “Some kid that writes about crazy challenges he did every week. Mad old story, comes to an end. He didn't win the award, but what a journey. Proud to be shortlisted @ukblogawards... To be continued….”
Sussex CCC Chairman Jim May visited the Centre during the afternoon to pay a courtesy call to the assembled journalists. He sat down next to me and we had a cordial chat about the present Club affairs.
My burning question: Why the appointment of Murray Goodwin as batting consultant?
May explained that the decision to appoint Goodwin was down to Mark Davis and Keith Greenfield. There had been many applicants for the job; he confirmed Goodwin signed a short contract and will be leaving at the end of July; that Davis is given a strict coaching budget and what he does with it is his responsibility; May wished to stress there is no animosity towards Chris Adams from the Club hierarchy.
Jim May - the pressure is on
Jason Swift now runs the 2nd XI coaching duties; his previous experience includes being a part of the Bangladesh coaching team under Stuart Law; Peter Such had spent time with Danny Briggs and Will Beer over the Winter months in the club indoor nets.
Keith Greenfield has established six new coaching modules, alongside the ECB courses, to improve the general practice at Sussex CCC; he has linked with the University of Brighton to utilise a similar talent ID programme as used by Manchester United.
The loss of Jordan to the IPL was a great disappointment but a move which the ECB had encouraged; the Wright back injury is a freak one and alongside his wrist op, another blow to the start of the season. May commented that these things happen and the club must deal with such set-backs the best they can.
May explained the Mark Robinson function was a farewell reception with a cash bar that was postponed from January due to Matt Hobden's death. Mark received various gifts including a Hull shirt signed by the players. But was it invite-only? Uncertainty prevails.
There are exciting plans this year to improve both girls and women’s cricket around the County on the back of the excellent work already being carried out by Sir Rod Aldridge and the £1.8m investment at the Falmer ‘Aldridge Cricket Centre’ (£1m came from his own personal fortune).
The new 5 offices built in the North East corner will accrue over £100k per annum when all are rented, where the building costs should be recovered after 3 years.
The Sussex CCC hierarchy are not as old, on average, as mooted in a previous post. May pointed out there are 4 people on the Club Board who are in their 40s; but there is an emphasis now to secure younger and more diverse Board blood.
He believes the community work the club are presently investing their time and money in will have a positive financial return for Sussex CCC. He foresees higher attendances in the future as more people come through the gates on the back of it.
May does not agree with Championship games starting on a Sunday and running through to Wednesday. There has been little or no commercial benefits for Sussex CCC since the ECB chose this direction. In fact, the 'Corporate Hospitality Business' at Hove has been decimated by their decision. Meanwhile, weekend attendances have been disappointing.
It is a difficult time for the club given how high expectations were before the start of the new season. None more so than for Jim May who after watching such an abject batting performance from Sussex on Sunday must think the world is against the club, at present. But I was reminded in the Media Centre that during the previous revolution headed by Moores and Adams, things got far, far worse before improving. Rock bottom struck Sussex when they played Gloucestershire in the Championship Division 2 in early September 2000 at Hove. The 4 day game was over in two days where Sussex were trounced by an innings and 18 runs.
www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/94112.html The new revolution manned by Davis and Wright can only improve. For as the song goes, ‘Things Can Only Get Better’. It’s the players’ heads that need to be sorted as the talent is there in abundance.
Later, I met up with Phil Barnes and Norman Epps in the Spen Cama Pavilion. Both work studiously for the club museum and have contributed to various publications on Sussex CCC.
The most recent is the third of their ‘record-breaking series’. These booklets are a collectors’ delight given how few are published - a mere 50 copies. Their first effort was on the Wright/Brown record 6th wicket batting partnership against Durham (335 runs); followed by the 10th wicket Robinson and Hobden record - also against Durham (164 runs); and now we have the youngster George Garton who gains the accolade of a booklet all to himself for taking a wicket on first-class debut with his first ball - on this occasion against Leeds/Bradford MCCU in early April. Only 39 other bowlers have achieved such a feat in English cricketing history. They are all listed in the publication. The last time it happened for Sussex was by Henry Stubberfield in 1857 when bowling against Surrey at the Royal Brunswick Ground in Hove.
The 2nd booklet in the series
The eight-page booklet goes on sale this week and can be bought via the museum. The cost is £5 and comes with an original George Garton signature.
Please contact the museum for further details.
