Sussex coach Mark Robinson insists the club’s senior players backed his decision to allow Rory Hamilton-Brown to leave so he could become Surrey captain.

And he warned the county were unlikely to sign a direct replacement for Hamilton-Brown, preferring instead to give further opportunities to the likes of Joe Gatting and Michael Thornely.

Hamilton-Brown returned to Surrey after two years with Sussex after a compensation fee was agreed between the two counties on the remaining year of his contract.

He has signed a three-year deal at the Oval, where he played all of his youth cricket and had three years on the professional staff.

When he left it had been six weeks since Surrey made their approach, during which time the likes of Luke Wright, Chris Nash and Gatting all signed new deals.

Robinson said: “We want players who are committed to the development of this team. All the players we wanted to sign new contracts have done so while knowing there was a good chance that Rory would leave and they were very much behind the club’s decision to release him.

“Nashy roomed with Rory in South Africa while they were with England’s Performance Squad so he was probably more up to speed than the rest of us during the last few weeks and Luke is his best mate.

“Good luck to Rory – we wish him all the best – but dressing rooms close ranks pretty quickly and we will move on from this.”

Although the compensation fee received from Surrey and Hamilton-Brown’s wages will go into the cricket budget it will only ensure Sussex sign a second overseas player for the defence of their Twenty20 title next season.

Gatting and Thornely will fight it out for the No. 5 spot in the Championship batting order while his one-day role could go to Ollie Rayner, who has underachieved during his time with the county but has the skills – accurate spin bowling and explosive batting potential – to fill the one-day role.

Robinson added: “We planned our Championship and one-day teams with Rory in it but we have two other 22-year-olds in Joe and Michael with great talent so unless another player comes along that we can’t resist we will probably go that way.

“What we have talked to Ollie about is that he needs to improve his overall skill and to gain more consistency in his batting as he has the potential to become a genuine all-rounder.

“Everyone assumes when you lose players you have extra money but when you re-sign your existing players on better contracts that budget goes.

“The compensation will guarantee we can bring in a second overseas player for the Twenty20 competition and if there is any spare budget after that we will go for another player, although whether anyone becomes available is a different matter.”

West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Smith remains Sussex’s preferred choice as their second overseas player after scoring 338 runs and taking eight wickets in last season’s Twenty20 and Smith would like to return.

But to be eligible, Smith has to be chosen in a West Indies squad again for the first time since 2007.

Smith flew to Australia this week to play for New South Wales in their domestic Twenty20 and good performances could put him in the frame for series against Zimbabwe and South Africa in the Spring.