When David Morgan was confirmed as Lord MacLaurin's successor as the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board in October 2002, the unanimous verdict was that he was a "safe pair of hands". Certainly the counties who had elected him were reassured by his stable and predictable demeanour - and the fact that he had been MacLaurin's deputy at the ECB meant that he would be singing from the same hymn-sheet as his predecessor. But many observers felt Morgan was too staid for such a high-profile job, especially compared to the man he beat to the post, the dynamic Surrey chairman Mike Soper.

A former chairman of Glamorgan, Morgan did not exactly embrace publicity - after the ECB election, the Guardian was forced to publish a picture of a fluffy kitten in his place, for want of a photo of the man - but he promised continuity, and after the hectic pace of change in the English game in the last few seasons, this was no bad thing.

In 2007 he was selected to succeed Ray Mali as ICC president in 2008, and in April he was left to defend the ICC's battered image after it jettisoned Malcolm Speed weeks before his retirement. Morgan, who handled the issue even though the hapless Mali was still president, rattled several boards with his handling of the affair, and would have been left in no doubt about the enormity and thanklessness of the task ahead of him.

Like MacLaurin, Morgan was a successful businessman in a previous life, rising to become commercial director of Electrical Steel before his retirement in 2001.
Andrew Miller