By IANS
London : England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) will need to go for another round of voting soon as its bid to find a replacement for outgoing chairman David Morgan ended in a tie, newspapers reported Wednesday.
First-class counties and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in Tuesday’s election gave nine votes each to the two candidates with, ironically, one abstention.
Morgan must give up the ECB position to take over as the president of the International Cricket Council (ICC) next June as part of a quid pro quo arrangement with Indian board president Sharad Pawar that allows the latter to succeed the Englishman in 2010, a year before the Cricket World Cup is played in the Indian sub-continent.
Surrey chairman Mike Soper was expected to sail through against Somerset’s Giles Clarke but the secret ballot proved otherwise.
Both candidates are expected to contest again but nothing prevents other candidates from entering the fray.
The ECB must now announce a fresh date for the election.