The former England captain Mike Brearley has apologised to the president of the England and Wales Cricket Board, Giles Clarke, after calling him an employee of the ECB who has to “do what he is told”.
Brearley made the comments when speaking at a press conference at Lord’s on Wednesday in his capacity as chairman of MCC’s World Cricket Committee, the cricket think-tank which had just thrown its support behind Twenty20 becoming an Olympic sport in time for the 2024 Games.
Clarke, who was ECB chairman from 2007 to May this year, was understood have opposed this move in the past, a stance Brearley claims has softened since he was replaced by Colin Graves and the new chief executive, Tom Harrison, came in.
Asked if Clarke, in his new role as ECB president, an unpaid position which represents the board at the International Cricket Council, could still stand in the way, Brearley replied: “The president of the ECB is an employee of the board and has to report to the board. He has to do what he is told.”
But in a statement released by MCC on Wednesday, the 73-year-old sought to clarify his comments. “I have apologised to Giles Clarke,” said Brearley. “What I should have said was that if the ECB changes its policy regarding cricket in the Olympics, then it would of course be Giles’s job to present that policy to the ICC. Giles is not an employee of the ECB board and I did not intend to imply that he was.”
