Farbrace on Sussex’s bid to inspire next generation, wanting to end Blast campaign on high and how his role is changing

The Sussex head coach says the county are keen to show they – and cricket generally – are open to all, and want to inspire the next generation of county cricketers.

Sussex host Hampshire on Sunday afternoon – and the south coast derby is always a cracker, even if on this occasion it comes with Farbrace’s team having missed the cut for the Blast quarter-finals.

We spoke to Farbrace about Sunday’s big occasion and some of the other issues dominating the Sussex CCC landscape at present.

Here’s what he had to say…

Families will have the chance to go on the Hove outfield on Sunday - we want to give them a connection to the club

One thing that we've noticed is the last few T20 home games, there's been a lot of kids, a lot of families, which is brilliant. At the end of the game, we have an area where the players go out and sign autographs and do selfies. And in discussion with Shaun (Simmonds, marketing manager) and others, we talked about, ‘wouldn't it be great to let all those kids on at the end?’

Kids have watched the game, kids have sat patiently, kids have probably driven their parents mad that they want to be active! And they can go and play.

I remember as a kid, as a youngster, I used to go and watch Kent and there was nothing better than getting on the outfield. It helped enthuse me and excite me about wanting to play cricket.

We're very proud of what we've got here at Hove, the ground is a very historic and traditional cricket ground. It’s quaint. And dad can have a beer, mum can have a beer, whatever it might be, they can enjoy themselves.

At the end of it, they can all go onto the ground and, you know, that wouldn't happen at Old Trafford or the Emirates or Stamford Bridge. You watch the sport and we're offering a unique opportunity for people then to get out on the ground and experience what they've just seen people doing. I hope that also lots of people come that haven’t been to cricket before. There’s never been a better time for boys and girls to be involved in the game.

At a time when there's lots of bad stuff going on in the world, it's a great time to bring people together, have a lot of fun, enjoy the sunshine, and get out on one of the most historic pieces of turf in the south of England.

We can inspire the next Sarah Taylor, Clare Connor, James Coles or Tymal Mills at our Family Fun Day - I’m looking forward to being with my grandsons out there

Sport is about, and the great saying that has been used recently, you can't be what you can't see. We want the next Sarah Taylor, Claire Connor, James Coles, Tymal Mills...

We want people to look at these players playing the game, our men and our women's team, and we want them to feel part of it, want them to feel connected. And we want parents looking and thinking ‘I'd like my lawn to be like this’ and this is the sort of place where we want to bring our kids again, it's a great environment, it's a safe environment, and you can enjoy it however old or young you are.

I'm looking forward to getting my grandsons, aged five and eight, out on the outfield after play and watching them running around and enjoying it.

And it doesn't matter what background you're from, everyone's welcome here. The game is something that brings people together for more walks of life.

I’m from a council house background in Kent - cricket isn’t just an elite sport and we want all sorts of people to be part of what we are doing

I'm not from a privileged background. I'm from a council house background in Kent, state school. Every little opportunity that inspired me I've taken, and I've been very lucky to do that.

And I hope that now that we're in positions here at Sussex that we can repay that and we can invite other people to be part of what we do.

And we don't want people to think of cricket just being, you know, this elite sport that you have to go to public school. It's not.

There's lots of work being done in state schools. There's lots of opportunity for kids to get involved in the game. And cricket is a game for all sorts of shapes and sizes.

And even if you don't want to be a player, you could be an umpire, scorer, coach, administrator, physio, on the grounds team, in hospitality, ticket sales, marketing, commercial, journalism. The list is endless around the game.

Cricket at times gets a bit of a kicking but actually we should all be very proud of cricket because it does provide a vehicle for so many people to get involved in something, meet different people and have experiences they wouldn’t otherwise have.

My grandchildren spread the word about Sussex after they visit and we want more kids to feel that way

They watch the sport, they enjoy the sport, they encourage other people to enjoy it. And I would love for 20 people to go away from Sunday and say, ‘we had a brilliant day at Sussex, there was face painting, there were activities, we went on the pitch at the end’. And we might attract another 20 people into the game that wouldn't have otherwise been involved.

I guarantee that, as the week unfolds, they'll be talking more about their little game of cricket after the game than they were about the game of cricket they actually watched, when mum played a great shot or dad dropped the catch or whatever. That's the bit that I think the families will remember more than actually the game of cricket that they come to watch themselves.

Kids can get involved in our Design a Shirt competition, creating their own Sussex Sharks shirt. The winner receives a Family Pass to our One Day Cup match against Hampshire on Sunday 9 August

Children can design a Sussex shirt and win a free family pass, they can see our new children’s book - it’s a day for creativity and education too

The Sussex Cricket Museum is also launching a new children's book, Score a Century. It’ll be in the Club Shop for £3, with proceeds supporting the Museum.

Kids with different interests and skills can get something from the day.

I'm a cricket fan at heart, I've got kids and grandkids. I love to see families having opportunities to do things.

I'd love to be watching the families out on the outfield having fun and I'll be out there with my grandkids. There's nothing better than seeing people smiling, enjoying themselves, having fun. That’s what it's about.

And in many ways, there's a lot of bad in the world. It's lovely to create nice things and it's nice to be able to create things that people can really enjoy. And it might be that someone's having a tough time, family having a tough time, but a few hours of cricket might just take their minds off that and allow them to just forget it's a bit of a tricky time and actually have a bit of fun and enjoyment.

So on a human level it is vitally important. And we've got a lot of really good, caring people here at Hove who do want to make sure that people on Sunday have a fantastic time.

This is a South Coast derby, we want to finish our T20 campaign by succeeding against them in front of a big crowd

It's the South Coast Derby, ‘el clasicoast’ it gets labelled as! It’'s a great game. Hampshire and Sussex are two historically big, traditional, British clubs. They both want to beat each other.

We didn't play so well at Southampton early in the season. We want to play well against them now. There'll be two good teams playing good competitive cricket, big history and tradition between the two teams.

Even though we've not been on a great run, we know that we will be up for the game against Hampshire on Sunday. It would be a great way to finish our campaign with a home win in front of a big crowd. And if it's against our local rivals, then even better.

You want local rivalries and bragging rights, all that sort of stuff. You want there to be healthy competition. You want the teams to play attacking, positive cricket. And you want people in the stands really enjoying the competition.

It's very difficult to watch a game of any sport and stay completely neutral, like watching the football World Cup at the moment. That's what sport does. It creates a chance to switch off from the real world. It gets you involved and immersed into something that takes your mind off things.

I’m moving from head coaching to concentrating on being director of cricket - we are attracting good candidates for the head coach role and, in 18 months’ time, things will have changed here

We’re quite a long way down the road of looking at who's going to be our new coach. We're going through the process of that, it's going really well.

There's some really good candidates and, despite all of the negative stuff about where we're at financially, we've got a lot of good people who want to come and be part of Sussex Cricket.

And the reason that I've agreed to stay on as the part-time director of cricket is that there's a lot of us here that care about the club and we want to see the club in a good position.

And it's obvious in the good applicants that we've had that there's a lot of people around the world who want to be part of Sussex Cricket, its heritage, its tradition. It's a great project for someone.

And we're going to make sure we find the right person to take the club on. And that person's got to be someone who really wants to make a difference, wants to be proud of the project that's here. We've got a lot of talented cricketers, we've got a lot of talented staff, both involved in the cricket and the non-cricket, and we've got a really good family feel to this place.

We've got a new chair in place, who I think is going to be absolutely brilliant, comes with a wealth of experience and knowledge. He's already spoken fantastically.

He's someone who is very clear in his thoughts and that's exactly what we need as a club, someone with real clarity, real drive and passion, someone who is going to help everybody else in terms of allowing them to do their jobs with good support around them.

This moment in time, we're going through a bit of a bump in the road and I'd like to think that within 12, 18 months we can start to come out of this bump in the road. Whilst it might be a bit uncomfortable, it is an opportunity to make sure that we're looking at everything that we do and making sure we're making the right decisions for the good of Sussex Cricket.

This isn't a time to make good decisions for individuals, this is a time to make good decisions for the club. We want many people who want to be involved in making good decisions around Sussex Cricket, and not having egos, not having private agendas. This is a really good time to be involved.