Too many youngsters? Too much experimentation? The dilemma facing Sussex in the One Day Cup

The crux of it is this: should Sussex be fielding stronger teams in these matches, especially after a deeply disappointing Vitality Blast campaign which ended with the Sharks bottom of their group with nine defeats in 12 matches and an apology to supporters from captain Tymal Mills?

In the middle of the Sharks’ third One-Day Cup game (and third defeat) against Yorkshire at Hove on Sunday I had lunch in the pavilion and eavesdropped on an interesting exchange of views.

One member said: “We had a terrible T20 tournament but at least we were trying. In this thing we’re not even TRYING!”

His friend/adversary countered: “But they’re giving some youngsters a go. You don’t know how good they are until you’ve given them a go.”

I must admit that I had sympathy with both sides of the debate.

Now, I don’t want to be too OCD about the ODC but this is a competition close to Sussex hearts. In earlier iterations it was called the Gillette Cup, the NatWest Trophy and the C&G Trophy.

Sussex won it five times, in 1963, 1964, 1978, 1986 and 2006, and they didn’t do so by experimenting with too many youngsters.

When Director of Cricket Paul Farbrace joined the club he was typically honest from the start: he would use the One-Day Cup to develop young players.

He has even greater reason to do so this year because, with all the financial nonsense going on, the club will lose three players at the end of the season (Henry Crocombe, Fynn Hudson-Prentice and Tom Alsop) with more announcements on the way; John Simpson is tipped to be leaving for Notts.

When Farbrace sits down with the bean counters at the end of the season he must be in a position to decide which of his up-and-coming cricketers should be offered contracts, and he can only do that by having a good look at them first.

So he’s right to experiment. But should he be looking at so many of them in the same match? Against Yorkshire Sussex fielded three young bowlers, Ollie Kirtley, Freddie Price and Toby Munt. Perhaps that was one – maybe two – too many, even though they acquitted themselves well enough.

Tom Price and Hudson-Prentice did not bowl in the Yorkshire game in order to give the youngsters a proper workout.

Also, if Sussex had played their solitary oversea man Dan Hughes, their one consistent batsman this year, alongside Simpson (why not use him while we have him?) that would have sent Yorkshire a strong message: we’re here to win this match.

Sending out a top four of Charlie Tear, George Thomas, Tom Price and Dan Ibrahim did not communicate the same level of intent to the opposition.

Sussex have not played an overseas player in the ODC since 2023. But why not? Against Yorkshire the Sussex batsmen had to counter the wristy wiles of Kuldeep Yadav, who has played 18 Tests and 121 ODIs for India.

Yorkshire came to Hove with a strong and experienced team and won by the small margin of 184 runs.

By the same token, other counties have gone down the Sussex route and experimented with young players. It’s all a question of balance. And the picture is complicated by injuries, Hundred call-ups (six for Sussex) and the fact that not all players are contracted for all competitions.

I talked to Farbrace about this and he told me: “We need cricket at this time, when the Hundred’s on. We need our young players to learn and the One-Day Cup is working nicely.

“In the four years I’ve been here I’ve said, every year, the plan is to use the 50-over competition to develop young players, find out about them and we’ve done that.

“The last week has told us a lot about our young cricketers - how they eat, how they drink, how they sleep, how they prepare for a game, how they mentally think about it.

“The Championship and the T20 are the two we go hard at. We’ve been very up front, so it’s not as though members don’t know what team we’re putting out. I’m not saying all the members agree with it.”

And they don’t Farby, they don’t. There is a need to experiment with young players. But at the same time it’s vitally important to field a competitive team, especially after the Vitality Blast let-down. And there is plenty of room for experimentation once Sussex can no longer qualify for the semi-finals, which could well be by the end of Wednesday’s match.

When there were four trophies at stake Sussex went for the lot. In 2006 coach Mark Robinson won the Championship and the C&G Trophy in his first season. What many people forget is that he was also desperately disappointed not to pull off the Pro 40 League.

But, unfortunately, few people would disagree with Farby when he told me: “Next year we’re going to have a much smaller squad and the chances of going for all three competitions are going to be absolutely zero.

“We’re going to have our backs to the wall next year. That’s why we have to play these youngsters now to find out whether we should sign them.

“And they might be playing a role in both the Championship and T20. The position we’re in in terms of our staff numbers next year is not pretty. And that’s something we’ll have to cope with.”

One thing’s for sure. If Sussex win the Championship this year (and any top three finish would be outstanding in the extremely difficult circumstances) all the white-ball disappointments will be forgotten among the celebrations.

What do you think? Should Sussex be fielding their strongest possible team in the One-Day Cup? Let us know your view by emailing editor@hoveandway.news