Yorkshire chief at helm for the next five years

The ECB have confirmed he will succeed Giles Clarke, along with a raft of constitutional changes.

The 67-year-old Yorkshire chairman will officially take up his new role at the ECB annual meeting in May.

As previously reported in The Yorkshire Post, Graves’s nomination was unopposed by 41 ECB board members, and rubber-stamped via an election process.

Currently the ECB deputy chairman, Graves spoke about the opportunity ahead in the Ashes this summer to involve more people in “the country’s number one summer sport”.

He said: “It is a great honour and a privilege to be elected as ECB chairman, and I would like to thank the membership of the ECB for offering me their full support.

“I would also like to express my gratitude to Giles for his outstanding leadership of ECB over the past eight years; a period which has seen unprecedented levels of investment in all areas of the game.”

Graves believes much progress must be made to ensure the future appeal and well-being of domestic cricket.

He added: “My immediate priority will be to work closely with our new chief executive officer, Tom Harrison, my fellow board members and the rest of the ECB’s senior leadership team to develop a comprehensive new strategy to grow cricket’s appeal still further across more diverse communities in England and Wales.

“With an Ashes series this summer and ECB hosting ICC global events in 2017 and 2019, we have a fantastic opportunity to inspire more people to play, attend and follow cricket.”

Clarke is expected to take up the new role of ECB president, England’s primary representative in global administration after the revamp of policy at the International Cricket Council last year.

Graves’s tenure will be five years, rather than the constitutional four, to avoid the need for an election in 2019 – when England is due to host the next World Cup.