Prior to 1872, Sussex County Cricket Club played their home matches at
Royal Brunswick Ground. The land for the County Ground was a
barley field until it was bought in 1871. The turf from the Royal Brunswick Ground was then brought to the County Ground, which became the home of Sussex CCC in 1872, and continues to be so. In 1873, Sussex bowled
Worcestershire out for 19 at Hove. In 1884–85, the public raised £4,400 towards the purchase of the ground, with the
Earl of Sheffield contributing an additional £600. In the 20th century, the ground was used for some other cricket matches, such as a charity match in 1927 between the "
Jockeys" and the "Racing Press", in aid of the
Royal Sussex County Hospital and the
Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital, and an annual match between local commercial travellers and grocers, nicknamed "Travellers v. Grocers"; in 1925, the match was won by the Travellers by 1 run. The ground has hosted one men's
One Day International; the match was part of the
1999 Cricket World Cup, and was a Group A match between South Africa and India, which South Africa won by 4 wickets. The County Ground has also hosted 2
Test matches in
The Women's Ashes in 1987 and 2005; in addition, the ground hosted two
One Day Internationals in the
2013 Women's Ashes, As of 2017, 5 Women's
ODIs and 4 Women's
T20Is have been hosted at the ground. In 2003, The County Ground was the venue where Sussex won their first
County Championship title. In that match, Sussex batsman
Murray Goodwin also scored 335
*, which was then highest score by a Sussex player in first-class cricket. The ground also saw Sussex win their third Championship title in 2007. == Non-cricket history ==