Sussex are hoping to cash in on the success of Twenty20 cricket by launching their own floodlit competition.

Talks between the four clubs with permanent lights - Sussex, Derbyshire, Essex and Glamorgan - have already taken place and they hope to get ECB approval as early as next month when the counties meet to discuss the 2006 fixture list.

They plan to play the tournament in August, two months after the group stages of the Twenty20 competition, and will be trying to attract TV coverage from Sky Sports.

But it will only go-ahead if the ECB give their approval and that is by no means guaranteed.

Cricket's governing body are encouraging counties to be more self-sufficient and less reliant on the annual handout but they may not want to sanction another Twenty20 competition having already expanded the tournament this season.

Sussex chief executive Hugh Griffiths said: "Our view is that it would be foolish to run the competition without ECB support. We've seen in the past that people don't turn up to watch matches which don't have any credibility."

The county have already sold an unprecedented 8,000 advanced tickets for their four home games in this season's Twenty20, which starts against Essex at Hove next Wednesday.

Griffiths believes there would be support for more Twenty20 action later in the season when there would be the added attraction of playing the matches under lights.

He added: "The analogy I would use for this is Wimbledon tennis. I love Wimbledon fortnight but for 50 weeks of the year there is nothing like it going on.

"Twenty20 only lasts for a fortnight or so and a lot of people are genuinely disappointed when it is over. Having a couple of home games in August wouldn't be over-doing it. They would also be played when the schoolchildren are on holiday which might attract more youngsters to watch."

The idea came originally from Essex whose chief executive David East said there had been 'positive discussions' with the ECB.