Martin Darlow among candidates for vacant ECB chair

JAMES COYNE: Darlow, 58, put his name forward to the ECB nominations committee chaired by his fellow board director Brenda Trenowden on Thursday (June 9)

Martin Darlow, the interim ECB chair, is standing for the position on a permanent basis, The Cricketer understands.

Darlow, 58, put his name forward to the ECB nominations committee chaired by his fellow board director Brenda Trenowden on Thursday (June 9).

Darlow's background is in recreational cricket: he is chairman of Southill Park CC in Bedfordshire, and the former chief executive of Bedfordshire Cricket and Cricket East (the umbrella development body for Bedfordshire and some other eastern National County boards which he helped establish). He still umpires at club level when he can.

He is also a trustee of Chance to Shine and is involved with Lord's Taverners.

One of his sons, George Darlow, is an allrounder for Beds in National Counties cricket.

^{Martin Darlow, left, with former ECB chief executive Tom Harrison [Getty Images]}

Darlow is a police officer by profession, he retired from Bedfordshire Police in 2012 after 32 years investigating serious crime. This knowledge base has been useful in the anti-corruption element of administering cricket, and he chairs the ECB's Anti-Corruption Committee.

He will be widely viewed as the internal continuity candidate for the post, having spent seven years on the ECB board, initially as recreational cricket representative alongside Jim Wood from Devon. He is a supporter of The Hundred.

During the ECB's ongoing administrative crisis, and especially since the departure of Ian Watmore as chair late last year, Darlow has taken on extra responsibility as the senior cricket non-executive director on the board, initially as deputy chairman to Barry O'Brien. Due to O'Brien's health issues, Darlow has travelled to represent the ECB at ICC board meetings. He replaced him as interim chair in April.

^{The ECB are without a permanent chair or CEO}

Whoever becomes the new chair will appoint the replacement for Tom Harrison as chief executive. Richard Thompson, the long-serving Surrey chair who is broadly popular among the counties, is expected to stand as chair. It is unclear what stance he would take on The Hundred, given that Surrey have been the most vocal opponents of a new competition.

The process of finding a new chair will drag on into July after Ron Kalifa, initially chairing the nominations committee, was unable to identify an appropriate candidate. He decided to stand himself, but then backtracked.

In the meantime, the ECB are operating with interims in the two key positions: Darlow as chair and Clare Connor as chief executive.