Jason Gillespie says cricket chiefs face a major challenge to keep everyone happy next season.

But the Sussex head coach hopes 50-overs cricket does not suffer due to the introduction of The Hundred.

The landscape of the domestic game changes next year as the new 100-ball competition comes on to the scene.

Sussex are stakeholders in the south coast franchise, whose women’s team will play home games at Hove.

Gillespie told The Argus: “I don’t envy the administrators to try and come up with the structure to make that all work. It’s a thankless task really but it will be a challenge with four different competitions.

“I think we have been given some rough schedule of how it will look.

“There’s a block of Championship cricket, then a two-and-a-half month block of T20 with four Championship games in the middle of that.

“Then there is the 100-ball comp and coinciding with that, side by side, will be the domestic 50-over competition.

“Then I think we finish with a couple more Championship games at the end of the season.

“It is challenging for supporters to keep up with as well.

“Every club will lose a couple of players to the 100-ball competition.

“A lot of people are quite negative about it but I think, with the 50-over comp, I’d be pretty disappointed if they take List A status away from it.

“I think it is certainly deserving of that.

“Us as counties, if we lose players to the 100-ball comp, it gives us flexibility and a bit of a licence to give some young players some real opportunity at List A level.”

Gillespie remains a big fan of the Vitality Blast.

Seven of Sussex’s eight home games this year sold out and, unusually, none of the fixtures were rained off.

He said: “I have long been a fan of the T20 Blast here in the UK.

“It is a wonderful competition. It has its fair share of criticism and I am not quite sure why.

“I think it’s a great product, great entertainment and we have seen that.

“We get 98% of capacity here. At the Oval, Surrey get huge crowds.

“Somerset have wonderful support. A lot of teams have fine support.”