Mushtaq holds the key

Championship Division 1 Nat League Division 2 Captain Chris Adams Coach Peter Moores Overseas Players Mushtaq Ahmed Rana Naved-ul-Hasan Retired Ian Ward Out Tim Ambrose

Revolving door
Peter Moores, now ECB Academy head coach, is replaced by Mark Robinson, styled professional cricket manager while Keith Greenfield is performance director. Ian Ward has taken up full-time TV presenting and Tim Ambrose gone to Edgbaston to pursue his keeping; hence Andrew Hodd's return from Surrey.

Winter wonderland
What Ashes factor? The club lost £631,366 in the year ending October 31, 2005. Indeed, the chairman David Green insists it has become "virtually impossible" for any county not staging international cricket to win trophies and still turn a profit.

Strengths
Varied attack; experienced batsmen; the most irresistible twirler the circuit has boasted for a good few decades.

Weaknesses
Questionable middle order; Luke Wright apart, scant evidence of quicks to push the old-timers.

Best-case scenario
A second Championship pennant as Mushtaq Ahmed tops the wicket-grabbers' table for a fourth consecutive summer; James Kirtley shakes the throwing monkey off his back; Mike Yardy shrugs off a modest A tour; Carl Hopkinson finds the centuries to complement his fielding; and Chris Adams cunningly persuades Pakistan's selectors that Rana Naved-ul-Hasan's superb county figures last year were illusory.

Worst-case scenario
Relegation in both leagues as `Mushie' breaks a finger or gets side-tracked by talk of a full-time coaching job with Pakistan.

Young one to watch
Luke Wright.

Key man
Mushtaq Ahmed.

What they say
Robinson says he intends to back youth to fill the void left by Ward's retirement. Murray Goodwin and Richard Montgomerie have forged the club's most consistent opening pair of recent times, he emphasises, further stressing that the top six boasts five capped players. Which leaves, as Robinson sees it, a posse of young pretenders in Hopkinson (who impressed in the second half of last term, not least with one staggering catch that Sky Sports captured in all its gobsmacking splendour), Chris Nash, Neil Turk and Sean Heather. Money saved on Ward, who left with two years to run on his contract, has been earmarked to help pay for a replacement import if/when Rana joins Pakistan.

Mark Wagh
Based around an excellent partnership between coach Peter Moores and Chris Adams, Sussex have been a powerful side in the last few years. However, with the departure of Moores, and Kirtley's remodelled action, this could be a more testing season. A controversial selection for Championship relegation but Division One will be exceptionally competitive.

Predictions County Championship 8th (D1) Pro40 3rd (D1)
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