AT A time when cricket’s governing bodies are having difficulty in attracting backing for the sport, Surrey have found a sponsor willing to spend £500,000 a year on the club and would like their famous ground to be known henceforth as the Brit Oval.

Brit is an insurance company listed on the Stock Exchange. A sponsor of squash, its commercial rights will include branding Surrey shirts. “Our supporters and members have not said they have any problems with renaming the Oval,” Paul Sheldon, the Surrey chief executive, said.

The sponsorship is the largest of its kind in English cricket and will continue for three years, with the option of a further two after that. Brit may discover, though, as Foster’s and AMP have in recent years, that in the main the ground will be referred to in the media and by followers of the sport simply as the Oval, out of custom and deference to its history. Indeed, Surrey must be glad that the nomenclature has not changed in the past.

Further development to the ground will start next Monday. By the summer, 12,000 seats will have been installed at the Vauxhall End. For the time being, Surrey have no plans to build a roof over the ground and would need to take in tenants to help to finance such a venture. “The idea becomes more practical if we are making the ground smaller, but we would have to have contracts with two other sports,” Sheldon said. “We are first and foremost a cricket ground.

” It is estimated that the cost of covering the Oval would be £50 to £100 million.

Surrey have spoken to five people, including Steve Rixon and Alan Butcher, in their quest to find a new coach. They expect to make an announcement within the next fortnight. Bob Woolmer, the former Warwickshire and South Africa coach, has turned down an approach because of his commitments to the ICC’s developing nations.