Coach Mark Robinson insists Ed Joyce should be remembered as one of Sussex’s best captains.

Joyce announced his decision to step down as skipper yesterday after three and a half years in charge.

The 37-year-old admitted the role had become a “burden” as Sussex dropped out of division one of the Championship for the first time since 2010.

Robinson says a decision has already been made on Joyce’s successor with Luke Wright favourite to take over having led the Sharks to the NatWest T20 Blast quarter-finals last season.

Robinson said: “We know where we are going to go with the captaincy but that can wait for now.

“At the moment we want to pay tribute to Ed who has led the team superbly and with great dignity.

“It is unfortunate the way things ended but that shouldn’t reflect on the job he has done.

“To finish third out of 18 counties in the Championship two years in a row is a fine achievement. If you take away the Mushy (Mushtaq Ahmed) era (when Sussex won the title three times) then it must rank right up there in terms of success.”

Robinson revealed Joyce had signalled his intention to step down at the end of the season whether Sussex had gone down or not.

The Ireland international – who has a year remaining on his contract - will continue as a player as Sussex bid to bounce straight back up to division one under a new captain.

Wright is the clear frontrunner for the role but Chris Nash is another having served as vice-captain during Joyce’s rein.

Robinson added: “Ed came to me three games before the end of the season and told me what he wanted to do.

“He felt it was the right thing to step aside but was massively motivated to try to keep us up.

“Ed feels he needs a break so will go back to focussing on his batting and desperately wants to score a bucketload of runs to help us win promotion.”