Sussex coach Paul Farbrace has revealed why he believes the county can push for Championship promotion.

He is also eyeing a return to Finals Day in the T20 Vitality Blast.

Members and supporters are hoping for something to excite them after underwhelming, and concerning, seasons in recent years.

Sussex were relegated from the Championship top flight in 2015 and have not seriously threatened to get back since then.

There was hope of a late bid to go up for much of last season but that was undermined by a points deduction.

Two big home wins late in the campaign gave some hope to take into the winter, although any upbeat feel was then diluted by the departure of Ali Orr.

However, Farbrace is confident Sussex can make a big push in the four-day game under the leadership of new captain John Simpson.

In an interview released by the club, He said: “Yes, we have got young players but they are professional cricketers and their job is to turn up and to score runs and to take wickets.

“They are all at different stages, but we have got enough quality in our team to actually talk about promotion to division one of the County Championship.

“And we want to quality for Finals Day at Edgbaston, they are the two goals.

“Getting promotion in the Championship is absolutely our priority.

“And we want to be at Finals Day.”

Despite their current troubles, Farbrace sees Yorkshire potentially dominating the second division in the way Durham did in 2023.

But he says he has seen “really good signs” in red-ball cricket since his arrival at Hove almost a year ago.

He added: “We have got a hungry group of players who want to keep improving.

“The thing we spoke about at the start of last season was we wanted to be promoted.

“In the end, we would have got the same amount of points as Worcestershire, who went up, had we not had points deducted for our ill-discipline on the field.

“It proved we are capable of being promoted.

“You expect Yorkshire to be up there, almost doing what Durham have done.

“It’s up to the rest of us to make sure we are up there, fighting and scrapping to be promoted.”

The county are now back in training at Hove.

Farbrace said: “We have got really good competition for places.

“I think that is quite exciting for us as a group.

“We have a highly motivated group of people who want to do well and we know they are on contracts for the next two or three seasons.

“We know we can really plan well.”