Ben Brown has been named as Sussex’s new vice-captain.

Skipper Luke Wright confirmed he had personally selected the wicketkeeper to be his right-hand man at a members’ forum at Hove last Thursday night.

Brown takes over the role from Chris Nash who had served as vice-captain under the leadership of Ed Joyce, who stepped down following relegation to division two of the Championship last month.

Wright is keen to usher in a new era at Hove as the club bid to end a six-year wait for a trophy and sees the gritty wicketkeeper-batsman as the ideal personality to help him galvanise the team.

The appointment is also being seen as reward for the 26-year-old’s best ever season with the bat last summer when he finished as second leading run-scorer at Hove behind Wright with 1,031, including four centuries.

Brown, a former England under-19 international from Crawley, made his debut for Sussex eight years ago and has gone on to make 185 appearances across all three formats.