Arundel to host Hampshire’s two ‘home’ games in the Bob Willis Trophy in August

That’s because the West End stadium is being used for England internationals – three ODIs against Ireland on July 30, August 1 and August 4 and two Tests against Pakistan starting on August 13 and August 21.

Hampshire’s two ‘home’ four-day games - against Surrey and Essex - will instead be played 40 miles away at Arundel.

The county’s players are very familiar with the Sussex venue - they have been training there during the whole of July.

‘We are playing our home games at Arundel because there isn’t really another suitable outground,’ explained Hampshire chief executive David Mann.

‘We have been using Arundel for training so we had done all the work around risk assessments and the guys are very familiar with the surrounding.

‘The alternative was playing five away games and for the guys that means four days on the road, four nights in hotels – which is a slog – and multiply that by five.

‘It would have been a big ask on them.”

Due to government guidelines, supporters are not allowed to attend games at Arundel in person.

Hampshire, however, will be offering a free live stream.

‘For these games in August there is no chance of a crowd, but we have backloaded the T20 fixtures into September to try and raise the possibilities of playing in front of a crowd,’ said Mann.

‘Things are changing every day and we will do everything we can to safely get spectators in the ground.

The 18 first class counties have been split into three geographical divisions for the Bob Willis Trophy.

South: Essex, Hampshire, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey, Sussex

Central: Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, Somerset, Warwickshire, Worcestershire

North: Derbyshire, Durham, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire

HAMPSHIRE FIXTURES

Aug 1-4: Sussex (The 1st Central County Ground, Hove)

Aug 8-11: Middlesex (Radlett)

Aug 15-18: Surrey (Arundel)

Aug 22-25: Essex (Arundel)

Sept 6-9: Kent (Canterbury)

The two group winners with the most points will progress to a five-day final to be staged at a venue TBC on September 30.

The T20 Blast fixtures will be released in August, but the games will definitely start on August 27.

Hampshire have one friendly before their first Bob Willis Trophy game – also against Sussex at Hove on next Monday and Tuesday.