Chairman Richard Thompson says, no slowing down of the Surrey juggernaut

Richard Thompson is proud that Surrey is the largest county in English cricket for "a huge margin," but the club president told AFP that they will not rest on their laurels and that they intend to widen that gap.

Thompson, who was the youngest president in Surrey's history when he was elected nine years ago at age 43, admits that they attract the envy of his rivals.

"Nine players who came to our academy formed the backbone of our success (they won the county championship last year), " he said.

"I'd like to think that our rivals are like those who thought" Ok, we may not like the Manchester United low (Alex) Ferguson, but we have to respect them because of the "92 own-grown" class.

Thompson says Surrey seeks to build his success both on and off the field.

"The academy is booming as well as women's cricket," Thompson told the AFP at The Oval, where the fifth and final ash the test begins on Thursday.

Thompson said, Our ambitions as a club are to win trophies and produce the best England cricketers.

Surrey's players have been crucial to England this year, with Jason Roy playing a pivotal role in the World Cup triumph, while Rory Burns has been the highest-scoring starter in the ashes so far.

However, the lifelong Surrey fan also has big plans for The Oval, which in the 19th century also hosted international rugby and football, as well as being the birthplace of the Ashes.

"We would like to become the largest terrain in the country (the current capacity is 28,000, the Lord's capacity is 30,000), which I believe we will achieve in the next five years," he said.

"That would allow us to organize the finals.

"Also with an additional capacity of 6,000 and the average ticket for a Test match s 130 ($160), these are millions you're talking about."

- "Become Immortal" -

"The red ball is the gold standard," Thompson said. "Cricket Test Match is where you can become an immortal.

Surrey says a county championship is incredibly hard to win, we won it 20 times, but it took us 17 years to win the twentieth last year.

"(In) the red ball game you have to adapt to many different types of wickets, white-ball cricket is a batsman's game."

Thompson, who says Surrey can draw crowds of up to 8,000 a day in county matches insists cricket is flourishing.

"Cricket has done an extraordinary job of keeping it relevant, whether it's in cricket for three days, a day or three hours."

Thompson and Surrey have placed more emphasis on attracting families and deterring bachelor parties, as the strength of beer for sale decreased and "they killed beer snakes."

"This year, 50 percent of our T20 buyers are new to cricket and 60-percent are new to T20, the numbers are astronomical," he said.

The familiar aspect helps by charging only one pound for children, but while that can cause a loss at night, it's an investment for the future.

"Many of those "children" for a quid "are now members of four to five years," said Thompson, who has seen membership grow from 7,000 years ago to 13,500.

While the current "children for a quid" can play video games in boxes behind where their parents are sitting, Thompson is aware of finding the right balance with viewers.

"There's a chant at Old Trafford, "We'll beat you back to London" as a lot of the spectators are corporate," he said.

"You don't want to lose that quirky atmosphere of The Oval. You'll miss it quickly if you insert too many corporate boxes.