Surrey CCC media release:

The Brit Oval can today announce that it has agreed a ten year extension to its deal with international facilities services group OCS for continued sponsorship of its flagship stand, and guaranteed naming rights to the OCS Stand at the historic ground until 2019.

In addition to the Stand sponsorship, OCS also supports Surrey Cricket and the local community by sponsoring the final of a county wide ‘Chance to Shine’ competition, a cricket project run by Surrey Cricket and associated clubs that includes around 70 Primary schools across the county. Chance to Shine aims to create sustainable cricket cultures within one third of all state schools in England and Wales over the next decade. The Surrey scheme culminates in the ‘OCS Chance to Shine Finals Day’, an opportunity for one school from each project to compete at the Brit Oval.

The company also hosts the annual OCS Young Sportsperson of the Year awards at the Brit Oval, a ceremony which honours excellence in sport amongst young girls and boys from throughout the country. Since the awards began in 1998, over £200,000 has been granted to over 100 deserving young sports stars, including 2009 Olympic gymnast Beth Tweddle, Beijing Olympic Gold Medalist gymnast Louis Smith, table tennis player Paul Drinkhall, winner of the 2009 Under-21 China Open, and clay trap shooting representative of the Shotgun Team GB at Beijing 2009, Lee Campion.

The OCS Stand, featuring a widely praised curved roof designed by top stadium architects HOK Sport, was opened shortly before England’s historic Ashes victory in 2005 and is renowned as the one of the finest places in the world from which to watch cricket.

As well as being a superb facility from which to watch cricket, the OCS Stand is the focus of the Club’s successful Conference and Events business, Oval Events Holdings Limited. During the last year the stand has held 2,570 non-matchday events, hosting nearly 50,000 guests.

Speaking about the deal, Zac Toumazi, Group Commercial Director at the Brit Oval said: “Signing up to another ten years of partnership with OCS is a huge development for both the Brit Oval and Surrey County Cricket Club.

“The OCS Stand has transformed our business since 2005 and has been instrumental in helping us to over double the Club’s turnover. I would like to pay tribute to the key part played in that process by OCS.”

Paul Sheldon, Chief Executive of Surrey County Cricket Club added: “For OCS to sign up for another ten years of support is really excellent news for the Club. It will enable us to plan for the future both on and off the field and I look forward to continuing to develop our very successful partnership.”

Chris Cracknell, Chief Executive of OCS said, “Not only does this sponsorship give our brand key exposure to audiences across the world, the partnership strongly underpins our business objective of putting something back into the communities in which we work and supporting young people through sport.”