Briggs: "I've been looking forward to it for a while!"

You heard it: Briggs is back. And he's here to stay, too, as he although he'll be a feature of the Sharks' T20 side this season, he'll also have one eye on the future as he returns in a player-coach role. 

Briggs made 130 appearances for Sussex after joining from Hampshire in 2016, taking 169 wickets and scoring 926 runs. Since his departure, he's been impressing with Warwickshire, in addition to Hundred stints with Southern Brave and Oval Invincibles.

It's back to Sussex now for Briggs, and we caught up with the 34-year-old upon his return to the county.

Danny, welcome back! How does it feel to be back here at Hove?  

Yeah, really good! Obviously, I've been looking forward to it for a while, having signed a while ago now. I'm looking forward to getting going, getting the winter started. I would love to fast forward to the summer, but there's some hard yards before and hopefully for a successful summer.

So you're back after a very successful stint a few years ago... tell us why! What was it that brought you back to Sussex? 

I loved my time down here first time anyway, and I think Farby [Paul Farbrace] obviously showed some interest back last summer, showed his sort of vision and the way the club's been going in the last couple of years.

It really is on the up. It's a great place to play. I loved playing at Hove first time round. So yeah, it was very appealing and also the opportunity to help out some spinners and the younger players as well. 

So you'll be coaching as well as playing. What are some of your aims for this season and indeed for the future as well, then? 

I think just to keep improving really, and that goes for the players, myself and as a team. I think the team's on an upward trend, as I said before, and we want to keep that upward trend and compete. Obviously T20, we'd love to get to finals day and hopefully win the thing as well. So I mean, that would be an aim and along the way, help players obviously improve and contribute as often as possible.

Let's talk about this coaching role. Can you expand on that a little bit for us? 

Yeah, I think, I suppose it's to use my experience and help the spinners mainly, but obviously any player. I've sort of got to the stage of my career where I want to help others and obviously that experience and knowledge can help.

So hopefully I can do that along the way, and ultimately it's so we can win more games for Sussex and hopefully England as well in time to come!

And obviously with Jack Carson, James Coles and Troy Henry - obviously talented young spinners - you see this as an opportunity for growing their game as well? 

Yeah, I hope so. I've always sort of played the game and in a good way to try and help others along the way as well. I suppose now I've sort of banked up a decent amount of experience in games Hopefully I can sort of pass that on, give them my knowledge and help them along the way and it'd be great to obviously see them thrive as well!

Briggs is back for Blast! Are you? Purchase your Blast Pass today via this link to unlock an unmissable summer of T20 cricket at Hove.