CRICKET'S marketing men can dress the game up as much as they like with floodlights, coloured clothes, orange stumps, black sightscreens white balls and all the razzmatazz that goes with it.

But what fills cricket grounds anywhere - whether it's Hove, Harare or Hyderabad - is the anticipation of seeing your team win, or at least compete. It's a feeling Sussex supporters, and indeed the players, are only just getting used too again. They had only just got over the shock of a first Championship win at headquarters for 22 months when around 3,000 of them filed into the County Ground last night, armed with flasks, woolly hats, gloves, blankets and anything else that would keep the cold out. Just the sort of clobber you take to the cricket really. Doing anything outdoors in the evening at this time of year isn't a lot of fun, far less sitting down for five hours under cheerless skies. There wasn't much atmosphere but Sussex's long-suffering membership didn't mind, their team is at least competing again. To some sceptics, it might seem that the signing of players like Chris Adams and Michael Bevan is placing too much emphasis on being successful in one-day cricket. But is there anything wrong with that? It will take a few years for Sussex's young squad to develop and anyway, the county have been waiting 159 years to win the Championship so a few more aren't going to make that much difference. Afew one-day pots in the meantime will be very welcome. Adams epitomised the Sharks' snappy fielding by saving a certain four at short extra cover with the sort of parry David Seaman would have been proud of. And although a slowish pitch was never going to be the batsmen's friend, the bowlers stuck to their task superbly even under a late assault from the burly Andrew Flintoff. But even without several of their big guns Lancashire still had enough one-day nous at the key moments to make the difference between victory and defeat, despite an innings from James Carpenter that bodes well for Sussex's future. The crowd drifted home disappointed, but they will be back, whether it's on an April evening in the cold or a summer Sunday afternoon. Sussex are competing again.

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