Why John Simpson offers Sussex leadership in different ways

But Sussex’s new club captain is putting thoughts of what he does after he hangs up his gauntlets to one side to ease the transition between himself and Sussex’s new red-ball skipper Ollie Robinson. Make no mistake, Simpson has another big season ahead when Sussex start their Rothesay County Championship campaign at Grace Road against promoted Leicestershire on Friday.

In the two seasons since Simpson joined Sussex from Middlesex he has scored 2,283 runs, kept wicket faultlessly and, of course, guided the county back into division one and kept them there last season when most outsiders expected them to come straight back down.

His role with bat and gloves will again be crucial this season, although it has to be hoped that the signings of Jack Leaning and Tom Price will boost Sussex’s batting enough to make them less reliant on the sort of Simpson-led lower-order rescue act which we’ve seen so often in the last two years.