Surrey plan to make redundancies

Surrey have been hit by poor attendances at The Oval

Surrey are set make 20 of their off-field staff redundant in an attempt to plug a budget deficit.

The club have been hit by poor ticket sales for England's Test and one-day international against Pakistan at The Oval and low attendances in the FP t20.

"We want to get the club structured so we can cope for what we expect to be much worse times next year," chief executive Paul Sheldon told BBC Surrey.

"This is in keeping with a global response to difficult times."

The news comes on the same day it was reported that the England and Wales Cricket Board plan to cut the number of group games in next year's domestic Twenty20 competition, partly in response to a drop in attendances.

"Two summers ago we played 10 group games, five home and five away. That worked very well," added Sheldon.

"This summer we increased the number of games and the same number of people came to watch eight home matches as came to watch five. We've spread the audience across the board and I hope we learn from that."

606: DEBATE

Surrey have acquired no more players then any other county, they've just been higher profile

Mike Phillimore

Surrey made a number of high profile acquisitions at the end of last season, with Rory Hamilton-Brown arriving from Sussex to captain at The Oval, Chris Tremlett joining from Hampshire and Steven Davies and Gareth Batty both making the move from Worcestershire.

However, this has failed to result in on-field success, with Surrey finishing eighth in County Championship Division Two and failing to progress beyond the group stage in both the FP t20 and Clydesdale Bank 40.

"Last year we had the Ashes, which was a fantastic experience and made us a lot of money," said Sheldon.

"This summer was the first time for 25 years that our Test match has not sold out and it is my responsibility as chief executive of the business to make sure that we react to that."