'Sussex are playing to win this year' says new One Day captain Jack Carson

"When you're playing for Sussex, you're playing to win", says the up-and-coming Jack Carson after being named captain for the first time.

The 25-year-old off-spinner, born in Craigavon, Northern Ireland, will lead Sussex in the Metro Bank One Day Cup this summer. Head coach Paul Farbrace broke the news to Carson a few weeks ago, though he says the idea had been floated before.

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"It's something that he's spoken to me about for a couple of years, in terms of joining the leadership group," Carson said.

"I think the timing is right now. I probably would have felt I could do it a couple of years ago, but in terms of my captaincy style, it probably would have been quite different."

In 2023, Carson was one of four Sussex players suspended after being found guilty of a Level Two offence during a County Championship match against Leicestershire. "My suspension a couple of years ago is well documented," he acknowledges.

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He is candid about how he has grown since, and stresses that having club captain John Simpson alongside him will make a significant difference.

"There's no point trying to be something that you're not," he said. "I'm someone who is competitive, someone who tries to lead from the front and not shy away from tough moments — and that's what I'll try to project throughout the team."

With The Hundred running at the same time as the One Day Cup, Carson accepts that his squad will look youthful - and he is embracing the challenge.

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"Hopefully we'll have a few academy boys and young pros get exposed to first-team cricket," he said.

"Part of my job, as someone who broke through as a young player, is to help those boys understand what it means to be a pro, how to compete hard."

Success, Carson says, means qualifying from the group stage and going as far as possible in the knockouts - but not at the expense of genuine development.

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"We'll be breaking down games afterwards, making sure we're really learning," he said.

"But ultimately, when you're representing Sussex on the pitch, you're there to win games. We're not there just to take part."

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Carson also spoke about Sussex team-mate James Coles, who recently became the most expensive player at the Hundred auction, sold to London Spirit for £390,000.

Carson describes a conversation with Coles during the SA20 in South Africa this winter, when Coles was initially left out of the Sunrisers Eastern Cape XI.

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"He just said, 'I can't believe I'm not playing in this team,'" Carson recalls. "I looked at their squad - it was absolutely full of international players. But in his first game in the team, he was man of the match."

For Carson, it was a lesson in self-belief. "Sometimes, you can think a bit less of yourself than other people do. To see that confidence he has was a good lesson — and hopefully a few of our other players can learn from it as well."

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