LONDON, July 31: Chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Ian MacLaurin announced Wednesday that he would be standing down after a six-year tenure.

MacLaurin helped bring in central contracts for England players in 2000, a change which has been widely credited as the main reason for the team’s recent upsurge in performance.

MacLaurin, who has wide business interests and who is chairman of telecom company Vodafone, said in an ECB statement: “I have concluded that I no longer have the necessary time to devote to this very important role.”

MacLaurin, however, who also helped pave the way for England’s new national cricket accademy to develop young players, was not universally popular.

He would have been forced to stand for re-election later this year, with the English counties expected to field a candidate against him.

Many feared MacLaurin was intent on continuing to centralise power at the ECB. With central contracts counties have lost control of their top names and most England players rarely feature at county level.—Reuters