Cricketers want to put a private club in the centre of a National Trust garden.

Armadillos Cricket Club has asked to build a pavilion, scoreboard and stores with a new pitch in the heart of Sheffield Park near Haywards Heath.

The site holds special significance for the sport as it hosted the first England v Australia cricket match, in the 19th century.

Jonathan Light, area manager for the National Trust, said: "We are keen to see cricket being played on the pitch here again and working with the Armadillos is a way of getting it.

"It would be at a village cricket level - not much more than that.

"We want to recognise the history of cricket here.

"It is an extremely significant place because the first England v Australia match was played here and lots of the touring Australian teams came.

"The Earl of Sheffield was a cricket fanatic and also instrumental with Sussex county cricket."

The third Earl inherited the estate in 1876 and one of his first tasks was to establish a cricket field.

He built three pavilions in the gardens for gentlemen cricketers to use.

The Australian XI opened their tour at Sheffield Park between 1884 and 1896. Lord Sheffield's team included cricketing legend W.G. Grace.

Lord Sheffield died in 1909 and it is thought cricket in the park started to decline from then and by the Second World War it was rarely played.

Mr Light said: "There is a pitch there at the moment and it was used for a couple of school matches last year but it needs a lot of work on it if adults are going to be using it and bowling fast.

"The pitch would need to be laid properly by a groundsman, levelled and re-seeded and that process would probably take a year.

"We'd like to have it open possibly late next year and hopefully for 2009 when it is the centenary of the death of the Earl.

"It is also the next time the Australian team will be coming back to England for the Ashes, so it would be timely to have it open then."

Mr Light said the National Trust would be writing to Wealden District Council in support of the application.

Sheffield Park, where the gardens were landscaped by Capability Brown, attracts tens of thousands of visitors a year.

It is mentioned in the Domesday Book and Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, entertained Henry VIII there.