The Hindu : Lord MacLaurin resigns

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 01, 2002

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Lord MacLaurin resigns

By Ted Corbett

LONDON July 31 Lord MacLaurin, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board for the last six years, has decided not to contest the leadership election next month after a summer spent attempting to fight off demands that he should go.

His decision will come as a shock to the general public who see him as a lordly figure in place forever; but the game's inner circle has been consumed with arguments in recent weeks about his wish to stay on.

MacLaurin has put up a good fight as you might expect of a man who rose from the shop floor to be chairman of Tesco's, the biggest British supermarket, but by last week he realised that he could not win and that the rules could not be bent to give him a further year in office. Instead he had to find a dignified way out and this week both in quiet briefings for journalists and in confidential discussions during the Lord's Test he announced that he was standing down. He issued a statement confirming that decision.

Lord MacLaurin said: "I believe we have achieved much in the past six years. However, I have concluded that I no longer have the necessary time to devote to this very important role. I have many other interests and my work for Vodafone is increasingly time-consuming and has to take priority.'' David Morgan, vice-chairman of the ECB, said: "In bringing his business acumen to bear on the leadership of the Board over a six-year period, Ian has played a major role in the commercial success of the game.''

MacLaurin has always said that he would not continue in office if it came to an election and when he discovered that Michael Soper, chairman of Surrey, could command 11 of the 19 votes — the 18 counties plus MCC — he abandoned plans for a farewell trip to the Ashes series in Australia this winter and a grand appearance at the World Cup in South Africa.

Lord MacLaurin, who was a second team player with Kent and who held a variety of administrative jobs in cricket, made an immediate impact when he took the chair in 1997. He went straight out to Zimbabwe, where England was touring, ordered that each player should have his own hotel room — rather than the lesser players being forced to share — and gave the coach David Lloyd a yellow card for an outburst after the Bulawayo Test was drawn.

Since then he has supervised the introduction of contracts and higher wages for Test players, the National Academy, the two division championship and brought sufficient money into the game to ensure it continues in comfort for years to come; but he does not leave behind a happy game. Many of the county committees were annoyed at his plans to change the county game and an increasing number distressed by his habit of speaking out of turn, particularly about players and England's performances.

Most people will acknowledge that part of the success of England as shown by their three Test victories this season — can be credited to Lord MacLaurin. David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, was just one voice urging him to stay on. "I guess he would not want to go through the process of asking for votes,'' he surmised. "I would be happier if I thought he was to continue.''

Some insist that MacLaurin was simply a high-powered fan whose only interest was in being able to maintain contact with the star players. I will have none of this. In six years MacLaurin had taken the game forward and now it is time for a new man to continue the process.

Soper and Morgan, the rivals for his job, will meet this week over dinner to thrash out that future. Behind the scenes power-brokers like Brian Bolus, chairman of the England Management Committee, hope there will be no election and that Soper and Morgan split MacLaurin's old job. I understand that Soper, who has been seriously ill, will standaside and allow Morgan to take charge.

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