The last champagne has been drunk and already, three days after they cavorted on the Hove outfield, Sussex's Championship-winning squad is breaking up for the winter.

Now the hard work starts again for director of cricket Peter Moores. The foundations for last week's success were put down six years ago when he packed up playing and took up coaching. The task now is to build on them and make sure it's not another 164 years before Sussex have cause to crack open the bubbly again.

It did not take long for him to be made aware just how much levels of expectation among Sussex supporters had risen. The day after their first Championship was clinched members were haranguing him for the county's poor performance during the first two sessions on Friday against Leicestershire!

Moores will get together with his coaching staff, Mark Robinson and Keith Greenfield, captain Chris Adams and chairman of cricket John Barclay later this week to finalise the futures of the players whose contracts expire in a few weeks' time. The vast majority are sure to be re-engaged.

"Our success this season has proved that the decision to wait until the end of the season before discussing contracts has been proved correct," said Moores.

Mushtaq Ahmed, who finished the season with 103 Championship wickets, was on his way back to Lahore today and will return next season on a two-year contract while there is increasing optimism at Hove that the county's other overseas player, Murray Goodwin, will commit himself for another season.

Goodwin is keeping his options open pending a decision on whether there will be a reduction in overseas players to one from 2005 onwards. If it is ratified at next month's meeting of the first-class counties Sussex would not be able to offer him more than a year's extension.

There would be no shortage of counties willing to offer Goodwin the security of a longer deal, but the former Zimbabwean player loves the club and the county. The feeling is mutual and any parting of the ways would be done reluctantly. My hunch is that Goodwin will stay for a fourth season and take his chances in 2005.

Of the other out of contract players perhaps only rookie fast bowler Shaun Rashid, who missed part of the season with injury and failed to break into the first team, has anything to fear when he meets the management later this week.

The others, Billy Taylor, Jason Lewry, Tony Cottey, Michael Yardy and Carl Hopkinson will all be retained. Adams is anxious that the Championship winning squad are rewarded for their magnificent efforts.

Moores says he has not put a number on the size of squad he would want for next season. Winning the title with just 18 pros is a remarkable achievement in itself and reflects well not only on the players but the backroom staff, such as physios Stuart Osborne and James Carmichael and fitness expert Rob Harley.

"Having a closely knit and tight group has definitely helped," said Moores. "A couple of times during the summer when James Kirtley was away with England and we had a couple of injuries we were stretched.

"But the hard work the players put in over the winter pays off during the season. Robin Martin-Jenkins is a good example of that, he only missed one game because he got himself really fit. Seven or eight guys will be with Rob again this winter and they will only benefit from that. We won't be looking to change the squad number too much."

I understand the county are looking to add a couple of proven performers to the squad in a top order batsman, preferably a left-hander, and a bowler. Several names have been linked with a move to Hove, Surrey pair Ian Ward and Alistair Brown and Essex's former Pakistan seamer Mohammed Akram among them.

But showing an interest and actually signing them are two different things and, as usual, Moores will be meticulous before offering anyone a future with the new champions.

"We have a budget for players which we must stick too and anyone who thinks we are suddenly going to be awash with money because we've won the title is mistaken," he said.

"We put the emphasis on performance. We tell anyone that they will be well paid but they have to do their job well. We also have a great team spirit and work ethic which everyone has to buy into. One rotten apple in the barrel can quickly spoil things. There's a lot more to signing a player than just talking to his agent and thinking he could do a job for us and we won't be rushed into anything."

When the squad return to Hove next spring the challenge that confronts them will arguably be the biggest of their careers.

Lancashire, runners-up four times in the last six years, feel only the weather prevented them from ending their own 69 year wait for the Championship while counties like Kent and promoted Worcestershire are already making optimistic noises about their own prospects.

"The good thing about us now is that we have started to expect to win things," added Moores. "But next year everyone will target us, every side we play will want to nail us yet our own supporters will expect the upward curve to continue.

"But we haven't worked as hard as we have over the last few years not to want to keep it going now we have won the Championship.

"Youngsters like Matt Prior and Tim Ambrose have won two trophies in three years but, like the rest of the squad, they have this tremendous desire to win more. Making sure we are in the best shape possible to try and achieve that is our aim for the next few months."

There was no surprise that Mushtaq Ahmed was named Sussex's player of the year at the presentations which followed the final match of the season against Somerset yesterday.

Mushtaq took 122 wickets, including 103 in the Championship, while the man who saw most of them from short leg, Richard Montgomerie, was named fielder of the year.

Matt Prior was named most improved player and Tony Cottey team man of the year while performance of the year went to Murray Goodwin for his record-breaking 335 in the Championship-clinching match against Leicestershire.

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