ECB changes likely to spell end for Clarke

LONDON: Giles Clarke’s long spell at the English Cricket Board (ECB) looks set to end in 2018 due to changes in the governance of the sport.

Clarke, currently the ECB’s first president, has been on the board of the organisation since 2005 and, between 2007 and 2015, was its chairman. But with the ECB set to reduce the size of its board from 13 to a maximum of 12 (and quite possibly 10) and introduce maximum term limits, it seems certain Clarke, now aged 64, will stand aside in the next few months.

To comply with the governance requirements of UK Sport and Sport England, the ECB will shortly introduce a term limit of nine years (three terms of three years) for directors, while it will also be obliged to have a minimum of 30% of each gender on the board.

At present, only two of the ECB’s 13 directors are women. While there is some scope for a director staying in position for 12 years if they are “appointed as chair... or to a senior position on an international federation” — Clarke qualifies on both counts — it will shortly become necessary for a director to have a break of four years before serving on the board again.

The ECB has previously opposed any reduction in the size of the board suggesting that to do so would pose a threat to its “operational effectiveness”. They have also claimed that the “highly complex nature of the business” necessitated longer periods in office.

The changes will be enshrined in the ECB’s amended Articles of Association — sent to counties this week and scheduled to be agreed in December and ratified at the AGM in April 2018 — alongside a raft of other adaptations. Among them will be an end to the system where the first-class counties (and the MCC) elect a chairman. It will instead be left to the board to elect one.