Sussex name Simpson and Mills as championship and T20 captains – but changes may follow

Ahead of the new County Championship season in April and the T20 Blast in May, Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace has named his captains for the two competitions.
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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.

Speaking to Sussex Cricket, Farbrace spoke about his choice to hand Simpson 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.

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" 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.

John Simpson will captain Sussex's county championship team (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)John Simpson will captain Sussex's county championship team (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
John Simpson will captain Sussex's county championship team (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

"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 potentially makes a change in June.

Farbrace heaped similar praise on Mills after naming the fast bowler captain for the T20 blast, taking the role from Ravi Bopara, t hough he admitted that the T20 World Cup could force a change of plan for Sussex.

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Farbrace said : “Tymal Mills is going to be our T20 captain. Ty worked extremely closely with Ravi last year, he is full of experience.

T20 veteran Tymal Mills will captain Sussex in the short format - unless he gets called up by England (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)T20 veteran Tymal Mills will captain Sussex in the short format - unless he gets called up by England (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
T20 veteran Tymal Mills will captain Sussex in the short format - unless he gets called up by England (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

"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.”

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