Corinthian Casuals Football Club have confirmed Micky Stewart OBE has agreed to become the club's new president following the death of Jimmy Hill just before Christmas, writes David Harrison. 

Stewart, former Surrey County Cricket Club skipper and an ex-England Test player, coach and manager, has been a member at Casuals since 1955 and was part of the team that reached the FA Amateur Cup final.

The 83-year-old sat out the final against Bishop Auckland as he was on cricket tour in the West Indies with an unofficial Test Team, but when the match at Wembley was drawn 1 - 1 the club arranged to fly him home for the replay at Middlesbrough.

Stewart's plane was delayed, meaning he only arrived five minutes before the kick-off, but with no substitutes allowed he could only watch as Casuals lost 4- 1.

He later turned professional and played three seasons at Charlton Athletic.

Stewart is best known for having played for Surrey for 20 years, scoring 27,000 runs - including a top score of 227 plus 50 centuries - and helping them to a record run of seven Championships.

He played eight Test matches for England and went on to be his country's first team manager.

Graham Gooch, captain during the later years of Stewart's time as England chief, said: "We laid the foundations for what you see in the England set-up now.

"The fitness, the monitoring of fitness, the nutrition, it was the birth of all that on a team scale."

Geoff Arnold, one of his protégés at Surrey said: "Undoubtedly, over the last fifty years, he has been the biggest influence as to where Surrey are now.

"People in the club always respect his views on what should happen and if they have a problem, they always go to Micky."

Stewart's son Alec, a former Tiffin School student, is England's most capped Test player and Surrey's current director of cricket.

He is also a playing member at Casuals.