A theme of regeneration and renewal is gripping English white-ball cricket at present, even if - on the early evidence of their T20I series with Australia - England's rebooted team remains a work in progress. Down on the south coast, however, where one of the stories of the summer has been unfolding, Sussex have already shown how quickly teams can flourish when the right culture is put in place.

Barely 18 months ago, Sussex were perceived as a club in crisis. Whether it was a conveyor-belt of departures at player, coach and executive level alike, or a grim first-class haul of three wins (and 19 defeats) in as many seasons, there was little cause for cheer among the deckchair-dwellers of Hove.

"Yes, we're delighted to be here, but we haven't come to make the numbers up," Farbrace said. "It's very English to talk about, 'oh, it'd be nice to do okay' we're here to win the tournament, and we've got to win two more games to do that. If we don't, and somebody beats us, well, good luck to them. They'll have deserved to have won it. But we're definitely here to win."

The current mood around the club is, quite literally, infectious. "We started well in the Championship, so that had a knock-on effect into the T20 side," Farbrace said. "And then, when we went back from T20, we won the two Championship games in the middle. So the belief is there among the players, and there's an expectation to win."

"Sometimes you can say, well, we haven't quite got the squad, so we can only compete in one format. No, you can compete in both," Farbrace said. "And the expectation isn't just about our first-team performances. The commercial team, the people in the office, the groundstaff everybody is excited by the progress the team's making. It makes their jobs a damn sight easier because they're not getting stick from people that they might have done two years ago."

"There's been a lot more role clarity, there's been a lot more clear thinking, and clear planning," Farbrace added. "We've got the right people in the right places, which is no disrespect to Ravi, because he scored an awful lot of runs and took a lot of wickets. But the addition of Dan Hughes [as overseas player] has been absolutely outstanding, and the non-selection of Ollie Robinson for England has helped us enormously.

"That team we had five or six years ago was an awesome team, and we turned up to every game expecting to win, because of the players we had on paper," Mills said. "But it dissipated quite quickly, and it probably wasn't a viable way of running a club the size of Sussex, with probably six or seven players only playing T20 cricket."

But now, as a rare single-format squad member, he will arrive at Hove, as Farbrace puts it, "chomping at the bit" to get stuck into the competition, and making sure everyone is ready to raise their game.

"The club rightly had to shift focus towards Championship cricket, but once I'd put myself forward for the captaincy, it wasn't with the aim to solidify, it was to win," Mills added. "And a lot of our players have surprised themselves with how good they could be in T20 cricket.

"It is a game that you can't just turn up and play, and hope to do well. Maybe 15 years ago, you could see how you go and have a laugh. But T20 is proper business now, and if you want to be good at it and you want to be successful at it, you've got to put in time, and you've got to put in effort, and you've got to think about it.

"So that's something that I think we've changed now at the club, especially with our batters, who have started to scratch the surface of what they can do in T20 cricket. The club's in a good place, because the boys have started really well in the four-day stuff, so we had a lot of players scoring runs, taking wickets, winning games. That puts you in a good place, and you haven't got half your squad who are out of form and nicking off, and not confident or comfortable with their technique."

One disappointment for Sussex is that they will be denied the chance to deploy one of the modern greats of T20 cricket during Finals Day, with Archer tied up on international duty. It's a situation that Mills decried as "stupid" in the wake of their quarter-final win, but as Kirtley acknowledged, his absence isn't exactly a novelty for the club.

"Jofra is a world-class act and, realistically, he can't be replaced," he said. "But for 14 games, we played without him and qualified. So, it's actually far easier to plan not to have him, and when he does play, it's a bonus.

"We also lost Danny Lamb, who was doing the workload up the hill at Hove no one can replace those shoes. But, we've played some really good cricket, and different individuals putting their hand up at various times, and I expect them to do the same tomorrow."

Kirtley singled out Hughes for particular praise, not simply for his competition-leading haul of 595 runs at 42.50, but also for his calmness off the field and the manner in which he has helped to nurture other key performers such as Harrison Ward, his opening partner. And similarly, with Mills and Robinson providing the wise heads in the bowling attack, the team's belief comes with some justifiably solid foundations.

"You want to come to Finals Day, and the younger players will want to have a bit more of this," he said. "Some of them have only just turned 20. This is what it's about. These experiences of big days out can only bode well for Sussex in the future."