County chairmen met on Tuesday "to discuss splitting the two roles" of the England & Wales Cricket Board chairman: Colin Graves would govern the game at home while Giles Clarke devotes his attention to the Int'l Cricket Council, where he is chairman of the finance and commercial affairs committee, according to Scyld Berry of the London TELEGRAPH. On one side, changing the constitution -- so that Clarke would become the first ECB president and in this new capacity represent England at ICC level -- "does smack of banana republics." It "is what dictators do when they want to serve a third or fourth term or be president for life." There "is also the danger that one leg of English cricket, at home, will not know what the other leg is doing abroad." Those on this side of the argument might therefore conclude: "either do both jobs properly -- govern the game at home and represent England abroad -- or not at all." However, "this carve-up may prove to be the best pragmatic solution." Graves thereby "can get his feet under the table and a grip of English cricket’s finances -- the acumen he gained as the chairman of Costcutter is his unique selling point -- while Clarke fries bigger international fish as the ECB’s representative at ICC level." However one views the new arrangements, one "might be tempted to subscribe to the view that they have been designed to ensure that neither Clarke nor Graves misses out." If both had stood for the ECB chairmanship in the old‑fashioned style, "it would have been a very close race, before one heavyweight or the other lost" (TELEGRAPH, 1/13).
