Colin Povey has outlined his belief that Warwickshire are well-placed to pursue the ultimate twin-objective for all big sports clubs – off-field security and on-field success.

Much talk about the Bears in recent years has revolved around their mighty debt to Birmingham City Council and their ability to repay it.

Much attention within the club has gone into that as well, of course, but chief executive Povey insists that that the primary raison d’etre of Warwickshire CCC – to play cricket well enough to deliver trophies for their loyal supporters – has never been forgotten.

In 2010, the Bears lifted the CB40 Trophy at Lord’s. Last season they came within a whisker of landing the Blue Riband prize of English cricket, the county championship, before finishing runners-up to Lancashire.

This time round they have made a brilliant start in the championship, winning their first two games against Somerset and Lancashire to top the early Division One table with a game in hand on their rivals.

Warwickshire will go into action against Sussex at Hove today with, as ever, feet firmly on the ground – that’s the Ashley Giles way – but with confidence high. And with Giles now in his fifth season as director of cricket, there is a continuity on the playing side which is paying dividends, reckons Povey.

Stability is the key to achieving that ultimate double-target, believes the CEO, who is himself in his sixth year at Edgbaston – and still relishing the challenges of the job.

“I am not known as someone who walks away from a job when there is still work to do,” he said. “And there is plenty still to do at Edgbaston. There are still substantial challenges facing us, on and off the field. The big challenge for any big club in any sport is to be financial healthy and also successful on the field.

“That is a very difficult thing to achieve and only a few clubs do it across all sports.

“But we are giving ourselves a chance. We have a magnificent new pavilion and now have got to fully utiltise it and make sure it is paid for and the club is run in a sustainable way.