Clarke beat Soper, the former Surrey chairman, by 12 votes to six after the pair had tied 9-9 in an earlier ballot. Again, there was one abstention. The more experienced and more widely known Soper, 61, had been favorite to win the first ballot, just as he had been favorite to beat Lord McLaurin in a previous contest.

But Clarke came from behind and gave himself even more momentum last month when, as chairman of the board's marketing committee, he completed a £40m deal with the television channel ESPN to show English cricket abroad, multiplying the previous deal eight times.

Soper said last night: "It is with great regret that I am tendering my resignation as deputy chairman of the ECB. The last few weeks have saddened me in that nine county chairmen told me to my face that they were supporting me. I have now found out that three nameless individuals have, in fact, lied. I cannot represent the game at the highest level while people do not honor their word. It has never been my way because I have always believed in the maxim 'my word is my bond'."

Clarke, 54, is the founder of Majestic Wine and Pet City and paid his way through Oxford University by gambling. But he is not everyone's cup of ECB. One chairman said last night: "He can come across as a bit arrogant. Mike [Soper] is a genuinely nice bloke but, intellectually, Giles is more formidable. Mike wined and dined the chairmen but Giles made them astute promises and that is why he won."

Giles, bright and multilingual, is best known in cricket circles for negotiating the £220m deal with Sky TV which took the game away from terrestrial television. He referred to those with no access to satellite TV as "less fortunate members of society".

He said last night: "This vote was about whether I should be chairman, rather than about whether my opponent should be chairman, which was the case with the first ballot. I was given a pretty thorough grilling by a number of counties on various issues and the reason I won the election was due to leadership. It was due to decisiveness, with the willingness to take hard decisions and the ability to understand people's point of view and reaching a situation where they're prepared to be led by someone who understands about leadership.

"The success Somerset have enjoyed on the pitch has not done me any harm. It demonstrated my ability to create an environment where cricketers can be successful. We've got a chief executive [David Collier] who does an excellent job but a chairman of any organization is a leader and needs to provide leadership at difficult times. It's very easy to be chairman when you win the Ashes. What I will be looking for is excellence in English cricket, at all levels, from the recreational game to the Test arena."

The rise of Clarke will be viewed as a victory for the marketing men. But not for people like John Grogan, the MP for Selby, who wants to break Sky's TV monopoly and says: "Cricket is the only major sport not to have free-to-air coverage of live action."

Clarke is expected to take office on October 10 when Morgan leaves the ECB to become president of the International Cricket Council.

The sports minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, last night congratulated Clarke on his appointment: "I am sure he will be an excellent successor to David Morgan and will work hard to further strengthen cricket in this country - from the grassroots to the professional game," he said

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