Could Sussex lose eight players and not replace any of them?

These get-togethers with the coaching staff and director of cricket Paul Farbrace bookend the season. There are three for players out of contract at the end of the season and Farbrace has been told by all eight that they don’t want to discuss their futures again before September. “All they want to do is focus on winning,” he said.

If, as seems likely, Farbrace leaves at the end of the season he can hold his head high. He has transformed Sussex on the pitch and is right to be bullish about their chances of success this summer. This is the best squad for a decade or more and, regardless of points deductions, one capable of challenging for honours in red and white-ball formats given some luck with injuries. The trouble is, as 200 or so Sussex members discovered at Tuesday’s AGM, the situation after the final ball of the season is bowled looks very bleak indeed.

There is even a scenario, unlikely though it may seem, that John Simpson, Tom Clark, Charlie Tear, Jofra Archer, Henry Crocombe, Fynn Hudson-Prentice, Danny Lamb and Harrison Ward all leave when their contracts expire and the ECB veto the signing of any replacements.