Former Sussex and Nottinghamshire cricketer is club’s new president

The club are delighted one of their favourite sons has agreed to take on the role – and Nash says he has exciting plans.

Nash was installed at the club’s annual meeting. He came up through the ranks at HCC from a cricket-mad seven-year-old, through to the Horsham first team and on to an outstanding 20-year professional career for Sussex, England Lions, Nottinghamshire and – in New Zealand - for Auckland and Otago.

He played more than 500 matches, scoring nearly 20,000 runs, holding over 200 catches and taking almost 200 wickets.

Since retiring from pro cricket, Nash has been nurturing a new career and has successfully launched that.

He told us: “I’m now really looking forward to getting back involved with the game, and there’s no better place to do that than with Horsham, my home club.

"The club has bounced back really well from relegation, delivering a real challenge for the Sussex Premiership title last season, with a fine blend of experienced and exciting young emerging players.

"A lot of hard work has been put in on and off the field, and the club is in excellent shape financially. It’s a great place to play cricket, as witnessed by someone of the quality of Bertie Foreman wanting to come and join us.”

Nash added: “It’s not just about the men’s first team – we’ve already got a thriving junior section for boys and girls, and women’s cricket too.

"I’m very keen to see us further develop all of that, making us an even more inclusive club. We’ve got a superb social set-up and the other thing I’ll be focusing on is to explore how we can become an even bigger part of the district community.”

Having played for Horsham with Chris at Lord’s when the club won the National Cup in 2005, Chris’s brother Mark is cricket development manager at HCC.

Chris Nash added: “There’ll be a good number of Sussex 2nd XI and other representative games at the club this season.

"With the infrastructure created by the army of hard-working people behind the scenes, I’m eager to engage in partnerships with local businesses, and to attract more players.”