Sussex CCC 2025 season previews: Horsham's own Tom Haines reviews his winter and looks ahead to the new season at Hove, speaking to Will Hugall
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Okay Tom, welcome back to home. How was your winter, firstly? How did it all go and how are you feeling after it all?
00:09Yeah, no, winter was really good. Stayed based in Sussex for most of it. Went to Cape Town as a group of six of us on a little pre-season camp at the start of March, which was really good.
00:21Just sort of 10 days out there training, getting the sunshine, which was good. And then feel ready for the season now, yeah.
00:29And of course, you're facing some pretty quick bowlers out there, but they're going through their paces, of course, so hopefully not too much damage done so far.
00:35No, no, the bowlers are good. There was good quality of training, good practice and we feel like it's got us ready for what's coming in the season.
00:44Absolutely. And we should look at that now, of course, because it is a return to Division One and not overdue for the team either, because when you first came into the team, it was recently after we'd dropped into Division Two.
00:56How much are you looking forward to testing yourself in Division One now?
01:00Yeah, absolutely. I feel ready for it. I feel like this is what the club need and what we've wanted for a few years now.
01:07Like you said, when I first came into the team, we probably had a team that should have been in Div. One that wasn't, and then the team dipped off and there was a few changes going on at the club.
01:18And then we've sort of built it back up now and Favre has come in and the squad definitely feels ready for that next step.
01:26Brilliant. And in terms of personal ambitions, obviously, it was a good season with the bat last year, but I imagine you want to push on and then get to the next sort of landmark of potentially 1,000 runs in Division One.
01:37Would that be your main aim for this season?
01:38Definitely. I think every top-order batter sets out with that. Opening the bat, it's a tough job, but you've just got to manage your way through the season.
01:48And definitely, I feel ready to score runs in Division One and hopefully just keep putting my name at the top of the run charts.
01:59And of course, the question of England openness is never far away because of the nature of it over the years, it has been pretty inconsistent.
02:06I know you've been involved with the Lions before and hopefully you're hoping to put yourself in the mix for an England call-up, depending on the outcome of this season.
02:16Yes, we'll see. That's not really in your control, is it? You've just got to focus on your games for Sussex.
02:24Obviously, I think going up to Division One is only going to help. If you can do well in that division, then it probably weighs a bit more.
02:30But yes, it's sort of on the back burner.
02:35You try not to think about it too much.
02:38I think that's what most people would say about it as well.
02:42So, yes, just scoring runs for Sussex and trying to win games in the County Championship is the main goal.
02:47And I feel like we can really surprise some teams this year.
02:51And of course, you're a key part of the leadership group within the team, both in 50-over and County Championship formats.
02:59Does your role really step up this year, considering there are still young players in the squad and the three signings that we made over the winter, they have less experience at this level as well?
03:07Yes, definitely. We've got quite a core group of senior players who've played quite a lot of cricket now.
03:14Our role stays pretty similar as it was to last year.
03:18The younger guys all have more cricket in the bank than a lot of the young players who played the 50-over comp last year.
03:25So we're going to hopefully see improvements in them from winter work-ons and their experiences last summer.
03:32So hopefully the squad just keeps getting stronger.
03:35Obviously, the three new lads who've joined us, they haven't played a lot of cricket, but from training with them, there's definitely talent there.
03:43And yes, we look forward to welcoming them to be part of the squad.
03:47And of course, you've got your own contract extension over the winter.
03:49I imagine it's quite welcome to have that security, knowing you're staying at Sussex, your home county, for even longer.
03:54Yes, there wasn't really any delay over signing.
04:00I think the way the squad's going and obviously us getting promoted and four-day cricket being my main format at the moment,
04:11just the whole atmosphere around the club at the moment, there'll be no reason to leave.
04:15It's been really good and Fabs deserves a lot of the credit for that.
04:19And of course, there's more consistency this winter compared to last winter when there was a change of captain.
04:24There was quite a few players leaving and quite a few coming in.
04:27Was it quite nice to have that settled sense to the club over the winter?
04:31Yes, definitely.
04:33Yes, the new players who came in last year, obviously Simmo had a very good season and capped in the side really well.
04:41And yes, this year it's settled.
04:43It's more of the same.
04:45We know what we want to do going into this season.
04:47We've got the same overseas players coming back, which always helps because they know the environment.
04:51They know everyone here and that helps for them to perform better, I think, as well.
04:56So, yes, we're really looking forward to this season.
04:59And of course, Fabi in there, he was talking about your ability to play spin because as a top-order batter,
05:05you've been facing a lot of pace and seam over the years.
05:07Is that something you've been working on a lot based off what you were saying over the winter, particularly with spin?
05:12Yes, definitely.
05:14I'm always trying to improve.
05:16I've faced a lot of spin in South Africa.
05:19Went to India twice last winter.
05:22It's one of the work-ons for me that I know I need to get better at, especially in white-ball cricket,
05:28to be able to rotate against spin easier and have more assured boundary options as well.
05:36But yes, it's something I'm still working on now, but definitely have got better over the last couple of years.
05:41OK, awesome.
05:42And I'll just finish off with a few quickfire ones.
05:45Firstly, who do you think will be our top run scorers in all three competitions this season?
05:51Joint runs?
05:52I'm going to go separate.
05:53Let's break them down one by one.
05:55Wow.
05:57That's...
05:58You can't say yourself, of course.
06:00Well, I hope myself.
06:00Yeah.
06:02I think T20 would go Dan Hughes again.
06:05I think he was really good for us last year, wasn't he?
06:08So, yeah, we'll go him again.
06:1050 over myself.
06:14County Champ.
06:16I don't know, I think there's a few in the mix for that one.
06:18I can't give you a name.
06:20OK, brilliant.
06:20And we'll go Wicket Takers in all three competitions as well.
06:25Hard to look past Ollie Robb for County Champ.
06:29And T20, Tamar Mills.
06:3350 over.
06:34It depends who we have.
06:35I don't know the team yet, so it depends if Ollie Robb comes back or whatever.
06:39So I can't give you a name for that one yet.
06:42And just a final question.
06:43Who do you think will be our breakthrough player of this season?
06:47Good question.
06:51I think Dan Ibrahim.
06:52Dan Ibrahim could surprise a few this year.
06:55I think he's worked hard in the winter.
06:56He's worked hard on his fitness and I hope he has a really good year.
07:00OK, fabulous.
07:01Thank you very much, Tom.
07:01No problem. Thank you.