Henry Crocombe has taken 21 wickets in seven County Championship matches this season at an average of 28.61. Surrey have signed fast bowler Henry Crocombe from cash-strapped Sussex for the 2027 season. The 24-year-old has taken 182 wickets in 113 matches across all formats for his boyhood county, and last month was called into the England squad for the second Test against New Zealand.

Crocombe said he was leaving Sussex "with a heavy heart" but that he believed a move to Surrey "offers a new challenge and would benefit my own ambitions". He added: "The club [Surrey] has a rich history of success and are always the team to beat in all formats. I'm looking forward to joining the squad and working with the coaches to take my game to the next level."

Crocombe is the first player departure announced since Sussex's financial problems were revealed in January. The club's books are under strict control by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) following losses of £1.3m in 2025, including operating under a salary cap for the next three years. They were also given points deductions in the County Championship, T20 Blast and One-Day Cup.

To get a grip on their finances, Sussex are facing a significant cut to their playing budget at the end of the season, and multiple players have deals expiring. Outgoing head coach Paul Farbrace recently told BBC Radio Sussex the club had made offers to some of them, but eight high earners had been told they would not receive new deals. Sussex have not disclosed who those eight players are, and it is unclear whether Crocombe, who has been with the club since the age of 12, is one of them, or if he had turned down a new deal.

BBC Radio Sussex understands that wicketkeeper and club captain John Simpson, batter Tom Clark, all-rounder Fynn Hudson-Prentice, bowler Danny Lamb and Scotland international Charlie Tear are also all out of contract at the end of the season.

On Crocombe's exit, Farbrace admitted to the Sussex website: "This situation we find ourselves in is really tough to take and seeing our own players the club has developed moving on makes it a more bitter pill to swallow. "He [Crocombe] is a fantastic young man, who has developed into a top-quality bowler, and through no fault of his own, finds himself in this tough situation."

The harsh reality of Sussex's financial position is laid bare by the departure of Henry Crocombe, and, no doubt, in the days and weeks to come, other players will follow. There was always the possibility that, being out of contract at the end of the season, Crocombe would have been tempted away from Hove, but Sussex would have had more chance of holding on to a prized asset were it not for their financial position.

However, the uncertainty around the club, coupled with the fact the current squad - many of whom Crocombe has played with through age-group cricket - is being torn apart, may have been part of his decision to leave. His performance at the Kia Oval in May during the County Championship match against Surrey, when he bowled rapidly, certainly raised a few eyebrows in the media centre - and clearly did not go unnoticed in the corridors of power in south London.

For Sussex supporters, it's a bitter, if inevitable, blow. As it is for bowling coach James Kirtley, who has moulded Crocombe into a player who looks destined to follow in his footsteps - both pace bowlers from Eastbourne, rising up through the Sussex ranks to play Test cricket.

Always courteous and humble, Crocombe will leave with good wishes from everyone at Hove - however for those who allowed this proud club to be mismanaged so badly, the consequences of their actions are now becoming abundantly clear.