THERE’s nothing quite like the sound of leather on willow in the summer months.

Be it at a game like Brunswick Village playing against Dormansland or Sussex taking on Yorkshire in Hove – cricket in the county is extraordinary.

Nobody is more qualified to talk about the nuances of playing at the home of Sussex cricket than Michael Yardy, who played more than 400 games for the county.

“It’s unique in terms of it’s a small ground but you have that closeness that’s lost in test match grounds,” said the former captain.

“Test match grounds are all about getting as many people as possible into the ground – and rightly so – but at Hove it caters for everyone.

“They’re not always there, but you’ve got the deck chairs, the corporate boxes are very close, people can stand on the bank or they can sit and watch from the South West stand which offers the same as you would get in a test ground.

“Although its small and you’ve got people sat on wooden benches, it creates as good an atmosphere as anywhere in the country.”

A Friday night at Sussex under lights is as good a night of entertainment you could wish to experience, and Yardy admitted it was what the players looked forward to.

He said: “I guess that’s the uniqueness of cricket in that you can go from playing a dead end four-day game on a Wednesday to a massive Twenty20 game on the Friday.

“Hove is special for getting you so close to the fans.

“Most other grounds you just don’t get that and you don’t get it in other sports.

“It’s what the concept of Twenty20 is all about and why it was introduced in the first place and thankfully it’s what Hove has kept.”

Idiosyncrasies are rife in cricket, and are magnified at Sussex's home ground in Hove.

The all-rounder said: “There used to be a guy who would sing an amazing rendition of Good Old Sussex by the Sea and his voice was like no other.

“That’s the one thing that stands out for me.

“But you’d have old ladies doing their knitting and they would tell you in no uncertain terms if you were playing badly.

“If something was going wrong on the pitch, we would know about it.”

Although the ex-international picked out winning the County Championship in 2003 and 2007, he also conceded a soft spot for games at Arundel.

He said: “Arundel is a special ground because of the history of it and where it's set.

“You don’t often get to play cricket inside a castle.”