Sussex's rivalry with Surrey, Hampshire and Kent stretches back to an era when players batted in top hats and bowled underarm.

But by the end of next season there's every chance that the current generation will be sick of the sight of each other.

An imbalance in the fixture list created by another change to the domestic structure means that of the maximum 90 days Sussex will play in 2008, 35 of them - or 39 per cent - will be against those same three counties.

And coach Mark Robinson believes it will make it harder for Sussex to win more silverware.

Although Sussex are not one of six counties in the same division as at least one of their rivals in all four competitions, they will still meet Surrey, Kent and Hampshire in three of them.

That equates to two four-day Championship games against all three, two in the FP Trophy against Surrey and Kent and a Pro40 League fixture with Hampshire - a total of 35 days. They also play Middlesex in all three one-day competitions.

Changes to the domestic game in 2008 will see each county play ten games in the Twenty20 Cup as opposed to the previous eight and for Sussex that means an extra fixture against Kent and Middlesex.

In the FP Trophy, instead of two conferences of nine teams playing each other once, the 18 counties plus Scotland and Ireland have been split into four groups with Sussex alongside Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Essex.

One benefit is that it will cut down on some of the ridiculous journeys the players had to make early in the season when a Championship game finished on Saturday followed the next day by an FP Trophy game hundreds of miles away.

But according to Robinson, it will make winning one-day trophies more difficult.

He said: "You can see why the FP Trophy has been regionalised. It will cut down on travelling but any time you have gained which you could use for preparation and rest has been lost because they are actually trying to cram in more cricket by adding on two games in the Twenty20 and bringing in a quarter-final in the FP Trophy.

"Our south-east group has always been the hardest one.

"One of the other groups in the FP Trophy is Notts, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Northants and Ireland.

"With all due respect to those teams, you would love to be in that group.

"Surrey have always been a strong one-day side, Hampshire got to the Lord's final last year and Kent won the Twenty20. That shows how tough our groups are."

The 2008 season will not finish until September 27 because the expanded Twenty20 competition will now take up three weeks in mid-summer.

And by the time it starts it will have been three years since Sussex last played Derbyshire and two since their last game against Leicestershire. In addition, they will not play three other counties whom they faced this year - Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Glamorgan.

Robinson added: "From a player's perspective, they do not want to be playing the same sides time and again. It is a very difficult juggling act but our guys would certainly sacrifice a bit of extra travelling if it improved their chances of winning a one-day tournament."

In total, 49 per cent of Sussex's 2008 fixtures will be against teams in the south-east and as well as the players, spectators will be forgiven if some of the county's opponents become as familiar as their own players next year.

Still, it could have been worse. Durham (against Lancashire), Worcestershire (Gloucestershire) and Warwickshire (Northants) will play 14 per cent of their games next season against the same opponent.