Chief executive Zac Toumazi insists he will not gamble with Sussex’s financial security in pursuit of success on the pitch.

Coach Mark Robinson’s playing budget has been cut for the first time in five years following the county’s relegation from division one of the Championship.

Three players have been released – Chris Liddle, Ashar Zaidi and Steffan Piolet – along with the retirement of Mike Yardy and although Danny Briggs joined from Hampshire, new skipper Luke Wright is expected to operate with a smaller squad next summer.

Toumazi says the cutbacks would have happened even if Sussex had secured the draw they needed at Yorkshire in the final game to avoid the drop.

And he is adamant the county will only spend what it can afford as they bid to emulate their achievement of 2010 when they bounced straight back up to division one following relegation.

Toumazi said: “Going down is a massive dent to our pride but it doesn’t have any financial implications.

“I don’t want people to think we are slashing and burning or that we are throwing the baby out with the bath water due to being relegated. The decision wasn’t taken on the Friday we went down, it would have happened anyway.

“It was based on what our income looks like going forward and takes into account we will receive less money from the ECB next year. Those factors means we needed to review what we spend throughout the whole club.

“We have increased the expenditure on pro cricket every year and there comes a point where we have to say ‘hang on, can we afford it?’. If you look at the ECB accounts we are ninth in the table (behind the Test grounds and Somerset) so nobody can say we don’t invest healthily in the playing side.

“But you can only spend what you can afford. Of course we want to get back into the first division but if it means spending some time in division two first we will do that.

“We spent more last year and didn’t get the results we were hoping for so you have to put the brakes on and see what you can afford.”

Sussex won the Championship three times between 2003 and 2007 thanks largely to the £12million legacy left to the club by Spen Cama in 2001. That money helped bring in star players like Murray Goodwin and Mushtaq Ahmed but the majority has since been spent on ground improvements at Hove.

But Toumazi, pictured, is quick to reassure people that Sussex are in no way facing similar financial problems to a lot of the smaller counties – Northamptonshire in particular – around the country.

“The club has always done its best to manage expenditure and keep debts down, something we have managed largely thanks to Spen Cama’s legacy. Some counties have got really acute financial challenges and we don’t want to be in a similar situation further down the line or have a situation where counties are underpinned by handouts.

“I don’t want people to panic or think this is a knee jerk reaction. It is a sensible review of our financial structure which is not borne of relegation.

You can’t spend what you haven’t got in. If we did it would be like going to the casino and I’m not prepared to do that.”