Deadlock in election for new ECB chairman

The ECB has had to go back to square one in its bid to find a replacement for outgoing chairman David Morgan after the first-class counties and the MCC gave nine votes each to the two candidates with, crucially, one absention.

It had been expected that Mike Soper, the Surrey chairman, had enough of the 19 votes to see off the challenge from Somerset's Giles Clarke, but that proved not to be the case. The voting details are not known as the secret ballot was carried out by the Electoral Reform Society.

Both candidates are expected to stand again but this time the underdog Clarke will start his campaign from a much stronger position. "I have received calls of support from my nominees and seconders," he said, "and I am confident that having secured nine votes I will not lose any."

The 53-year-old Clarke became an unpopular figure in English cricket after brokering the £220million deal with BSkyB that took home Test series away from terrestrial television. But he is currently overseeing the redevelopment of the county ground in Taunton and is believed to be keen on attracting investment to try to boost the finances of county cricket.

Soper meanwhile admitted that he had failed to make a strong enough case for his election. "I have to take responsibility for this result and acknowledge that I didn't work hard enough to convince the counties that I was the right man," he said. "I've got to go out and do that now and I am determined to win the second round."

"It's turning out to be a marathon, not a sprint," he said. "I'm quite philosophical about it - I'm guilty of having been a little too complacent about the vote. I should have come out fighting more. No one has a God-given right to be chairman but I probably just assumed that people would vote for me because they thought I was a good bloke.

"I should have been more proactive and told people about my record in business, what I did at Surrey and my views on all the big issues in cricket."

The ECB board now has to hold another election and the date for this is expected to be announced in the next 48 hours. It is possible that another candidate could enter the field in the interim.