Goodwin adds shine to Sussex

Murray Goodwin celebrates the moment of victory in the NatWest Pro40 decider

Murray Goodwin had a golden summer for Sussex with the bat, but admits he would gladly swap some of his runs for team success.

The 35-year-old topped the county’s averages in the championship with 1,343 runs at 58.39, including six centuries and five fifties.

The former Zimbabwe batsman was also to the fore in the Twenty20 Cup and the NatWest Pro40, inspiring Sussex to the Division One trophy with an unbeaten 87 which included hitting the last ball of the game against Nottinghamshire for six to take the title.

“I was just thinking about not losing my wicket and not being reckless,” he told ecb.co.uk. “But I was also trying to guide other people through the tough times of the spinners.

“We tried to get through that and target a boundary an over and see where we got with five overs to go.”

Goodwin and Mohammad Sami put on an unbroken partnership of 99 and scored 16 off the final over to see Sussex home.

But Goodwin, who has been instrumental in Sussex’s triple championship glory, was disappointed that they could not manage to repeat their success in the four-day format this year.

“My season has been good, I am very pleased with it,” he said. “But it’s not quite the same feeling as when you are winning as a team.

“I would gladly pass up a lot of these runs if we were fighting for the championship. It really would mean a lot more to me than just churning out the runs.

“That really is how I feel. Whenever we have won things you celebrate together and you just enjoy the game a lot better.

Goodwin has been pleased to see the progression of young players like Carl Hopkinson

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“It has been frustrating for me looking at it from a team perspective. Personally I have done well and I’ve enjoyed it, I just wish we had done better as a team.”

The fact that Sussex escaped relegation in the championship was also helped by a Goodwin innings as the batsman scored 118 after being sent in to follow-on against Yorkshire in the last round of matches.

“To be fighting to avoid relegation in the last game is not ideal,” Goodwin admitted. “You can’t win all these trophies that we have won and then suddenly play second division cricket.

“We are too good a team for that. The club has put in such a lot of hard work to get us up to that level. For us to let down the club and the supporters and ourselves - which is the most important thing, letting ourselves down - would be very, very disappointing.”

He also has his own thoughts about Sussex’s limited overs cricket this year, which saw them come bottom of their group in the Friends Provident Trophy and second from bottom in the Twenty20 Cup, before they bounced back to win the NatWest Pro40.

“In one-day cricket we have been a bit hot and cold,” Goodwin confirmed. “We played well in the Pro40s, but we had a good plan there.

“In some of the Twenty20 cricket - and I know we had a few rain-affected games - we just didn’t stick to our plans. It was very disappointing.”

Nevertheless, Goodwin has taken heart from the emergence of some of the less experienced players at Sussex, singling them out as one of the highlights of his season.

“I shall tell you what is a huge highlight for me - seeing some of these young guys make hundreds and seeing some of our bowlers take five wickets,” he said.

“They are the highlights I really like to see.”