The new season will only be a few days old when Peter Moores discovers whether it might be his last with the county he has served as player and coach for two decades.

Moores has emerged as favourite to become director of the England Academy when Rod Marsh leaves in September after a successful interview last Thursday.

He was among six candidates and the panel, which included England coach Duncan Fletcher, were said to have been impressed with the 42-year-old, who began his Sussex career 20 years ago.

Moores is saying little about his hour-long grilling in a London hotel, except to confirm that he thought it went well.

The interview panel, chaired by ECB performance director Hugh Morris, will reconvene in the next few days and Moores will know whether he has got the second most important coaching job in English cricket next week.

His main rival appears to be Worcestershire coach Tom Moody. The other candidates included former England captain Mike Gatting.

The good thing from a Sussex perspective is that if Moores goes, the county will have the whole summer to groom his successor.

But neither the club or the man himself are looking any further ahead than the start of the new Championship campaign at the Oval tomorrow and that is exactly how it should be.

Moores did not appear to be a man with too many distractions as he put the final touches to his team's preparations at Hove over the weekend.

This is someone for whom the word professionalism was invented and, even if he were to land the academy job, there is no way he would allow himself to coast through the next four months. Indeed, he gives the strong impression of someone absolutely determined to guide Sussex to more success in 2005, regardless of where his own future lies.

"Everyone says the same thing at this time of the season but no one knows our squad better than me and I think we've got a great chance of having a really good year," he said. "We've got a balanced squad with a lot of players who know their own game and what winning is all about. Our goal has to be to win a trophy because I think we have the players good enough to do so."

Moores also believes the players learned as much last season, when they effectively trod water, as they did in the unforgettable Championship-winning summer of 2003.

"I think last year we fell into the trap of not knowing whether to strut or scrap. We decided that we would scrap. We didn't deserve to win the Championship last year because we didn't play well enough for the whole season. Warwickshire had a phenomenal run at the start and held their nerve so credit to them.

"But I have sensed a real focus about the players since they came back, a real determination when they get down to work - whether it's in the nets or out in the middle - a calmness almost."

At the start of their fourth season in the top flight, Sussex are regarded as one of the first division's heavyweights. The disciplines which Moores, more than anyone else, has instilled in each and every one of his players has a lot to do with that and the county will need it again this season in what he regards as the most competitive Division One since the Championship was split in two in 2000.

"I think the most revealing thing about last season was that Warwickshire won it with 11 draws and it will be interesting to see if that continues," he added.

"Certainly most counties seem to have strengthened their batting which wasn't an area I think we had a problem in. In Division One you play on better pitches and there is a huge emphasis on batting down the order, you don't see teams throwing it away so much. The cricket is tighter and bowlers have to work harder.

"Attacks are happy to work for two, two-and-a-half hours to build pressure. I see that as a good thing, particularly for players who aspire to the next level and international cricket where patience is what it's all about."

Moores has had one of the busiest winters he can remember. There was the protracted will he, won't he' saga when he made a shortlist of two for the West Indies' coaching vacancy. It was followed by an even lengthier search for a second overseas player.

That was only concluded at the weekend when Sussex tied up a deal to bring Johan van der Wath to Hove for six weeks until the arrival of Pakistan's Rana Naved ul-Hasan for the bulk of the season.

"It's taken time but I think we've signed two quality overseas bowlers," was his assessment.

"Rana looks like he could be a really good county player. He swings it away early, reverses it late on and has a batting average of 25.

"But what I also like about him is that he looks like a fighter, a scrapper and an English-style bowler who could give us a really good injection in the middle part of the season."

Van der Wath is regarded in South Africa as a strong contender to play in the next World Cup and Moores is happy to give him the opportunity to put himself in the shop window with a short stint in county cricket.

He revealed: "I've spoken to people whose views I respect, such as Allan Donald and Andy Moles, and what comes across is that Johan is a very committed cricketer who is coming from a winning set-up at Orange Free State, hopefully into another winning set-up.

"He's a strike bowler and the sort of batsman coming at No.8 who could be very dangerous. He's got two first-class hundreds to his name this season. His stats excite me."

The prospect of a new season also excites Moores, even if it could be his last on the county circuit.

Greater challenges surely beckon for the best English-born coach in the game at the moment but nothing would give him greater pleasure than leading Sussex to another trophy and watching the emerging talent at Hove, which he has helped to nurture, flourish over the next few months.

"Take someone like Matt Prior," he said. "Watching him develop since he first came onto our staff in 2001 into an England player in the making is almost as exciting from a coaching point of view as winning trophies."