Mark Robinson is emerging as the overwhelming favourite to replace Peter Moores when he leaves Sussex at the end of the season to take over as England Academy director.

Moores, 42, will replace Rod Marsh in October after signing a three-year contract but before he goes he will recommend to the club that Robinson, who has been on the coaching staff for three years, steps into his shoes.

Skipper Chris Adams and the players themselves would also welcome his promotion. "Robbo deserves the job and would have tremendous support from the squad," said Adams.

If the club opt for Robinson he is likely to have a different remit compared to the all-encompassing role Moores has performed since 2002 as director of cricket.

As well as coaching the players, he is responsible for a myriad of other things from controlling a £1m-plus playing budget right down to the choice of hotels for away trips.

The feeling is that Robinson may not be ready just yet for as much responsiblity although there is no doubt that he is capable of stepping up into the role of first team coach three years after retiring as a player.

There is no desperate hurry but chairman David Green wants a new structure to be in place by the time Moores says his goodbyes at the end of the season. The committee will have their first discussions on Monday.

By appointing Robinson Sussex will be getting someone cut from the same cloth as Moores. There is too much potential for things to go wrong by bringing in an outsider who would want to impose his own ideas on a wary group of players seeking continuity. They were queueing up yesterday to endorse Robinson's credentials.

Sussex may even decide to create a post which would involve different aspects of the ones currently filled by Moores and chief executive Hugh Griffiths.

Moores said: "I'd like to be part of the process on what happens in the future because I'm in a good position to make a recommendation.

"Mark Robinson is definitely ready for the first team job. The foundations underpinning the success we've built up at Sussex is the special people who work at the club and Robbo is one of them. He's similar to me in quite a few ways because he has strong values and respects the game.

"Over the last two years he's had more and more first team exposure. The aim when he came onto the coaching staff was that one day he would take over my job. It would be a great challenge for him and I'm sure the players would support him because they have a lot of respect for Robbo."

Moores got a first taste of the higher profile his new job commands at a press conference at The Oval yesterday where the lenses flashed every time he moved his hands while around a dozen national newspaper journalists gave him a gentle grilling.

He was always a front-runner to succeed Marsh and the four-man interview panel, which included England coach Duncan Fletcher and performance director Hugh Morris (who was Moores' captain in the England Schools team), made their minds up within hours of meeting him at a London hotel last Thursday.

He was on a shortlist of two after being invited to apply for the job of coaching West Indies last October and after 20 years at Hove, the last eight of them in coaching, he knew the opportunity was too good to miss.

"I was probably due a change of scene," he admitted."You try to change your role to keep things fresh but in the last eight years the job has definitely grown and I have loved the other aspects of it apart from the pure coaching."

Moores is refusing to look any further forward than this season which he is anxious ends with Sussex having secured more silverware.

"I'd love to win a trophy and at the end of the season know that I have left the whole structure of Sussex cricket in great shape."