Paul Farbrace leaves Sussex to join Lancashire as director of cricket

Farbrace, whose huge experience in the game has included stints as England women's head coach and men's assistant coach, announced in July that he would be stepping down from his role as Sussex head coach at the end of their County Championship campaign.

However, he had initially agreed to take up a part-time role as director of cricket at Hove, in order to aid the club's transition at the end of his four-year tenure. Matt Walker, the former Kent batter who served as batting coach for Warwickshire's title-winning campaign in 2026, is due to take over as head coach.

Despite being placed in special measures by the ECB back in February, after reporting a £1.33 million operating loss for the 2024-25 financial year, Sussex achieved an impressive third-place finish in Division One of this year's County Championship.

They did so despite the distraction of a number of high-profile departures from the club, including the highly rated seamer, Henry Crocombe, who signed for Surrey in July, and the wicketkeeper, John Simpson, who joined Nottinghamshire last week. A further quintet of departures were confirmed by the club at the start of the month, among them their Australia import, Daniel Hughes, who had been a mainstay of their performances across formats since his arrival in 2024.

Farbrace himself had warned, at the start of the season, that it was "now or never" for Sussex to achieve further silverware, having earned their promotion as Division Two champions in 2024.

The financial realities at Hove have been made all the more apparent given the circumstances of Farbrace's arrival at Old Trafford. Lancashire finished seventh in Division Two of the Championship in 2026 - effectively 17th out of 18 counties - with only Gloucestershire below them.

It was the worst season in the club's proud history, following on from an underwhelming 2025 which had already caused a chance in captain and coach, and it cost director of cricket performance, Mark Chilton, his job. Daniel Gidney, the chief executive, had announced in April that he would be departing at the end of the season, following pressure from prominent former players at the club, including David Lloyd and Paul Allott.

However, the success of Manchester Super Giants in the Men's Hundred has helped to mitigate the county's shortcomings in the Championship, and reaffirmed the widening gulf between the have- and have-not clubs in English cricket.

"It is with mixed emotions that I am leaving Sussex Cricket after four years," Farbrace said. "I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Hove, working with so many great people, right across the whole club.

Richard Kenyon, Lancashire's new chief executive, praised the breadth of experience that Farbrace will bring to his new role, and said that he would form a "key part" of a wider review of Lancashire cricket, in the wake of their poor recent performances.

"Paul's credentials and capability for this role were obviously very clear - but he particularly impressed us with his understanding of where the club is and what we need to do to move forward," Kenyon said.

"Paul brings significant experience across both the men's and women's game, as well as an excellent track record of success. We wanted an established, high-performing Director of Cricket, with a strong understanding of the leagues, players and wider landscape of the game - and Paul ticks all those boxes. "We're really excited to have Paul on board and I'm looking forward to working with him. It was important that we moved quickly with the Director of Cricket appointment, as it represents the first piece of the jigsaw as we continue our wider review of cricket at Lancashire - which Paul will play a key part in when he joins us later in the year."