A good crowd is expected to attend the first match to be played on the Nursery Ground at the Hampshire Rose Bowl, where Hampshire play Sussex in a 2nd XI Championship match on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week (6th to 9th June).

With Hampshire moving to their all purpose new ground for the start of the 2001 season, where the First XI will play on the main oval and the Second XI, Under 19s and other youth cricket will concentrate on the nursery ground, much attention will be made of how the wicket plays.

Nigel Gray, Hampshire's head groundsman who with his staff, has worked extremely hard on the playing surfaces of both grounds will be particularly attentive.

Images of the first days will be available next week on this web site.

Food and Bar facilities will be available, but only limited seating, so it is recommended that spectators bring their own chairs, and admission is free,

The teams for the historic first match are:

Hampshire: James Adams, Andy Sexton, Andy Perry, Lee Savident (captain), Laurence Prittipaul, Zac Morris, David Jackson, Ian Brunnschweiler (wk), Irfan Shah, Ben Trott and Adam Syrell.

Sussex: Wasim Khan, Dominic Clapp, Michael Yardley, Will House, Jamie Carpenter, Shaun Humphries, Nick Wilton (wk), Keith Greenfield (captain), Billy Taylor, Patrick Spencer and Paul Havell.

Umpires: Kevin Lyons and Alan Bundy

Scorers: Tony Weld (Hampshire) and John Hartridge (Sussex)