Gloucestershire last night elected Rex Body as the club's new chairman and the former Rolls-Royce director spoke of his desire to see the county continue to flourish on and off the pitch.

Body, who has served as deputy chairman for the last three years, was voted in at the club's annual general meeting at Nevil Road. He replaces John Light, who stepped down on medical advice.

"Being chairman of this historic club is a great honour and I will serve it with total commitment," said Body.

"I'm a sports enthusiast who loves cricket and I want Gloucestershire to succeed at cricket and to achieve and maintain the commercial and financial strength the club needs for the cricket to thrive.

"This is why it is so crucial to develop the ground and to maintain our international status. Bristol deserves top class cricket in top class surroundings and that is what I'm determined to strive for.

"As we start the new year, our planning application is in and we have a strong and talented playing squad.

"It has an excellent mixture of experienced, established players and up and coming young ones, so I believe we can have a successful season and build on the progress made last year."

Body has served on Gloucestershire committees for 11 years and was the executive board member responsible for ground development.

He was born and went to school in Guernsey before entering the RAF. Ear problems stopped him from flying, resulting in a medical discharge and a change in career direction.

Having turned down the offer of trials from Chelsea and Newcastle United, Body went to Southampton University to study Economics before joining Rolls-Royce.

He retired as commercial director of RR Aero Engine Services in December 1996.

Also at last night's meeting, Roger Cooke's role switched from that of treasurer to replace Body as deputy chairman, while Tony Elgood became honorary treasurer.

Former Gloucestershire left-arm seamer Mike Smith remains the club's chairman of cricket.

Gloucestershire's plans to redevelop Nevil Road will go before Bristol City Council's planning committee on March 10. The proposals are to increase permanent seating from 3,668 to 10,000, raising the 'international' capacity of the ground to 20,000 when temporary stands are erected.

The plan is for the £10 million scheme to be funded by building housing on site and the club do not expect their recently announced annual loss of £167,000 to affect the development.

Gloucestershire will not be going on a pre-season trip this spring and will instead continue to train in Bristol.

Vikram Bannerjee and Ian Saxelby have been with England's Performance Programme in South Africa, while Chris Dent and David Payne featured for England Under-19s in the World Cup in New Zealand.

Paceman Steve Kirby heads to the United Arab Emirates next month to play for England Lions in a series of one-day games with Pakistan.

And Kirby and skipper Alex Gidman will be back in the Middle East in March, playing for MCC against Durham in the Champion County match.