Chris Adams doesn't mind that Sussex are struggling in cricket's equivalent of the Fair Play league - as long as they keep winning trophies.

The 'Spirit of Cricket' trophy is awarded annually to the best behaved county and this season, for the first time, it is based on marks given by the umpires after every Championship and one-day match.

The first league table shows only Middlesex, of the 18 first-class counties, between Sussex and the bottom of the table.

On a sliding scale, three points are awarded to teams who epitomise the 'true spirit of the game' down to minus one for sides whose behaviour is considered unacceptable.

Any team reported to Lord's for a disciplinary offence, as Sussex were last month when Mohammad Akram was found guilty of ball-tampering against Warwickshire, automatically receives a minus one rating.

"I'd be quite happy to finish bottom of this if we won something this season and I think every other captain would say the same," said Adams.

Ironically, the first table was released during the match against Lancashire. Forget traditional geographical rivals like Surrey or Kent, Warren Hegg's team are now regarded by the majority of the Sussex squad as the arch enemy.

Certainly, the 'spirit of cricket' seemed to be the last thing on anyone's mind at Old Trafford a week ago when Mohammad Akram was being withdrawn from the attack for bowling beamers, or Dominic Cork and Adams were engaged in what seemed like non-stop verbal sparring during the Sussex innings. You can be sure they weren't reminiscing about the good old days at Derbyshire.

Then there were the moans which seemed to accompany every appeal from Mushtaq Ahmed. They weren't just coming from the Lancashire members, who need no excuse for a grumble, either.

We're not talking anything on the scale of Celtic v Rangers here, but in the last ten months there has been a noticable 'edge' to the six meetings between the counties.

It all started at Hove last August when Sussex won a pivotal match in their Championship-winning campaign with just 12 minutes to spare. Lancashire felt that some of the crucial umpiring decisions went against them, but what really wound them up was the exuberant nature of the celebrations which followed Sussex's win.

Revenge was swift and sweet. At Old Trafford a month later, Lancashire won by an innings and although it failed to stop Sussex from clinching their first Championship, Hegg's men clearly felt they had made a point.

Adams raised the stakes before their Hove re-match in April by claiming that Lancashire had become 'serial complainers' although he was magnanimous enough after the visitors cantered to a ten-wicket win.

Rivalries were renewed again in a televised C&G Trophy third round tie at Hove last month on a spicy pitch which soon had batsmen on both sides hopping about.

For the first time anyone could remember, Carl Hooper even swapped his open-faced helmet for one with a protective grille after he was given a working over by Akram while Adams, who has seen and heard it all during his 14 years on the circuit, admitted even he was surprised by the non-stop verbals his batsmen were subjected to during their unsuccessful run-chase.

It hardly helped that less than three weeks later the teams were at it again. There is clearly no love lost between them and it's probably no bad thing that they aren't scheduled to meet again this season.

Adams admitted the atmosphere was occasionally "unpleasant" last week, but insists it's all part of the modern game.

"When you have two talented teams going hard at each other then there is bound to be the odd spat now and then," he said.

"At times it's unpleasant but it will be a sad day when we can't put all that to one side and have a beer after play. Warren and I are both experienced players and neither of us would ever let it get out of hand and if there was ever a situation where things went to far, then you would expect the umpires to step in."

Adams does concede, though, that there is far more sledging than when he first started.

"Mike Watkinson (Lancashire coach) played at the same time as me and he says the language was funnier and that most of the time it was just a wind-up.

"I totally agree. I don't remember this amount of chat when I first started, but there is more pressure now to get results with two divisions. But you accept it and as long as you can shake hands at the end, which we did at Old Trafford, then I haven't got a problem."

Perhaps Sussex should start stirring things up with a few more counties. It was no coincidence that they produced their best performance since winning the title against the team they enjoy putting one over more than any other.