Kia Motors (UK) Limited, which recently announced an extension to its partnership with Surrey County Cricket Club until 2020 is supporting club captain, Gareth Batty during his testimonial year.

During the year Batty, who joined Surrey in 1999 after two years with his native Yorkshire – and then re-joined the club in 2010 – will host a number of fund-raising events and will donate a proportion of the takings to the Evelina London Children’s Hospital.

Kia is providing Batty with an Optima Sportswagon GT Line S model for his use during the year to make his schedule of events easier to manage. Paul Philpott, president and Chief Executive commented: “Gareth has been a great servant of the club and as proud sponsors of Surrey we were delighted to be able to help him in his much-deserved testimonial year – especially given his commitment to Evelina.”

Batty said: ”The Optima Sportswagon is a great car and has so much space in its huge load area – it will be ideal for moving not just my cricketing gear but also all of the equipment and material I will be taking to testimonial events. I am extremely grateful to Kia as this will remove any worries for me about transport during what is going to be a busy year for me.”

Batty, who returned to the England team during the winter tour of Bangladesh and India served two interim periods as Surrey captain in 2012 and 2013. Originally from Bradford, he is a right-arm off-spin bowler and has formed part of Surrey’s bowling attack throughout his career. In 2015, after being formally installed as captain, he led Surrey to promotion back to Division One of the County Championship.