Paul Farbrace has left Sussex to become Lancashire’s director of cricket and will also oversee the women’s team after a season in which Lancashire finished seventh in County Championship Division Two. The 59-year-old had been expected to move from Sussex head coach to a part-time director-of-cricket position at Hove from November, but will instead replace Mark Chilton at Emirates Old Trafford.
Farbrace will also oversee Lancashire’s women’s team as part of his new remit. His arrival is the first major appointment under chief executive Richard Kenyon, who had promised a review of the club’s cricket operation. Chilton left the post last month.
The move ends Farbrace’s four-year spell at Sussex and changes a plan that had appeared settled only months ago. Sussex confirmed in July that he would move from head coach to a part-time director-of-cricket role from November. Matt Walker had already been appointed to succeed him as head coach.
A change of plan after four years at Sussex
Farbrace told Sussex’s club website that he was leaving with mixed emotions and remained grateful for the opportunity to lead the players and staff. The former England assistant coach had helped Sussex return from Division Two in 2024 and guided them to third place in Division One this season.
That third-place finish came despite Sussex beginning the campaign with a 12-point deduction. The BBC reported that financial problems at Hove had led to the penalty and had prompted Farbrace to say in April that he would step down as head coach at the season’s end.
His decision in July to stay on as part-time director had offered Sussex continuity after Walker’s appointment. The Lancashire role means that continuity will not now materialise. The report said Farbrace’s departure had come as a major shock at Sussex, where concerns already existed about players leaving amid the club’s financial controls.
Against Lancashire’s recent results and Kenyon’s planned review, Farbrace’s work at Sussex offers one possible model for improvement. Farbrace led Sussex to promotion from Division Two in 2024, before competing near the top of Division One in 2026. That promotion does not guarantee an identical outcome at Old Trafford, but Farbrace’s coaching experience and his new director-of-cricket role give Lancashire a figure to work above the head coach, in a move the BBC said signals a realignment.
Lancashire seek a reset after difficult results
Lancashire ended the 2026 Championship season seventh in Division Two, their lowest position in the club’s history, according to the BBC. The county have won only 11 of 56 Championship matches since 2023, a sequence that includes relegation in 2024 and the past two seasons in Division Two.
The scale of that record is more clearly seen across the longer span: 45 of those 56 matches did not end in a Lancashire victory. The BBC also reported a run of nine defeats in 10 matches between May and September this summer, with only Gloucestershire below Lancashire in the final Division Two table.
Those results form part of the context for the appointment of a director of cricket above head coach Steven Croft, who has just completed his first full season in the role. Lancashire have not won one of the game’s principal trophies for 11 years, with their T20 Blast success in 2015 their last such title.
Kenyon said Farbrace had impressed Lancashire with his understanding of the club’s position and what it needed to do to move forward. He said the new recruit brought experience in both the men’s and women’s games, alongside a successful track record, and described him as an established, high-performing director of cricket with knowledge of the domestic landscape.
The appointment places Farbrace above head coach Steven Croft. The appointment comes as Lancashire seek to respond to their lowest Championship finish, while Farbrace will also oversee Lancashire’s women’s team. Sussex will now lose the part-time director-of-cricket arrangement that had been planned from November.