By Charles Randall
8 July 2016
Martin Darlow, of Southill Park CC, brings a home counties viewpoint to the ECB as one of two new board members, elected alongside the former England women cricketer Lucy Pearson.
Darlow, chief executive of Bedfordshire Cricket, joins the panel of 14 directors after the retirement of John Pickup; Pearson, head teacher at Cheadle Hulme School in Cheshire, replaces Baroness Rachael Heyhoe Flint.
Darlow, a former senior police detective, is steeped in club cricket as a qualified coach and umpire while still a long-term player at Southill Park, a club with perhaps the loveliest ground in Bedfordshire.
Pickup, the president of Cheshire County Cricket Board and chairman of the Minor Counties Cricket Association, steps down after serving as a director since the ECB’s formation in 1997.
The ECB's chairman Colin Graves said: "Martin’s election reflects the prominent role he has played in leading Bedfordshire Cricket over the past four years – a period which has seen the board strengthen its relationships with clubs and schools, deliver a host of innovative community programmes and help local teams achieve significant successes in national competitions."
Darlow's intensive experience of grassroots and development cricket should help amplify any concerns from the National Cricket Conference in their efforts to widen cricket's playing base. He said after the news was made known: "I am delighted to be elected to this role as a result of a national election and to be given the opportunity to help shape the future of the game. This role will enable me to assist in bringing the first class game closer to grass roots cricket and to ensure long-term sustainability.
Before injury ended Pearson's career as a left-arm pace bowler she became only the second woman in more than 70 years of Test cricket to take 11 wickets in a Test match with match figures of 11-107 against Australia in 2003. She moved to the Manchester area after a spell as deputy head teacher at Wellington College in Berkshire.
8 July 2016
Martin Darlow, of Southill Park CC, brings a home counties viewpoint to the ECB as one of two new board members, elected alongside the former England women cricketer Lucy Pearson.
Darlow, chief executive of Bedfordshire Cricket, joins the panel of 14 directors after the retirement of John Pickup; Pearson, head teacher at Cheadle Hulme School in Cheshire, replaces Baroness Rachael Heyhoe Flint.
Darlow, a former senior police detective, is steeped in club cricket as a qualified coach and umpire while still a long-term player at Southill Park, a club with perhaps the loveliest ground in Bedfordshire.
Pickup, the president of Cheshire County Cricket Board and chairman of the Minor Counties Cricket Association, steps down after serving as a director since the ECB’s formation in 1997.
The ECB's chairman Colin Graves said: "Martin’s election reflects the prominent role he has played in leading Bedfordshire Cricket over the past four years – a period which has seen the board strengthen its relationships with clubs and schools, deliver a host of innovative community programmes and help local teams achieve significant successes in national competitions."
Darlow's intensive experience of grassroots and development cricket should help amplify any concerns from the National Cricket Conference in their efforts to widen cricket's playing base. He said after the news was made known: "I am delighted to be elected to this role as a result of a national election and to be given the opportunity to help shape the future of the game. This role will enable me to assist in bringing the first class game closer to grass roots cricket and to ensure long-term sustainability.
Before injury ended Pearson's career as a left-arm pace bowler she became only the second woman in more than 70 years of Test cricket to take 11 wickets in a Test match with match figures of 11-107 against Australia in 2003. She moved to the Manchester area after a spell as deputy head teacher at Wellington College in Berkshire.