Tom Harrison Set To Step Down As ECB's Chief Executive

After seven and a half years as the ECB’s chief executive, Tom Harrison is due to step down.

When Harrison’s term ends in June, Clare Connor, the managing director of women’s cricket and president of the MCC, has been touted as an interim replacement.

Tom Harrison Has Had A Controversial Tenure

Harrison was with IMG in Singapore and ESPN STAR Sports in senior executive positions before being appointed as the chief executive of ECB in October 2014. He started full-time the following January.

He was born in England and raised in South Africa before returning to the UK at the age of 14. He played first-class cricket for Derbyshire and Northamptonshire.

For much of his tenure, though, he has been a controversial figure. He oversaw the launch of the Hundred, which was delayed until last summer, and while the £1.1 billion television rights agreement he secured in 2017 increased the ECB’s revenue, it drained its coffers.

He has also had to deal with the racism crisis that engulfed the English game in recent years, regularly testifying before DCMS select committees, and oversaw the sport’s response to the 2020 pandemic, which included the staging of England’s full international summer behind closed doors in bio-secure environments.

The ECB had to lay off 20% of its workforce in the autumn of 2020, partly as a result of the financial hit it took during Covid, despite Harrison and his fellow senior executives being in line to share a £2.1 million bonus pot following the commercial success of the first season of the Hundred, a situation that drew widespread criticism.

“It has been a huge honour to be CEO of the ECB for the past seven years,  the past two years have been incredibly challenging, but we have pulled together to get through the pandemic, overcome cricket’s biggest financial crisis.

“…and committed to tackling discrimination and continuing the journey towards becoming the inclusive, welcoming sport we strive to be. I have put everything into this role, but I believe now is the right time to bring in fresh energy to continue this work,” Harrison said of his tenure.

With the men’s team losing its managing director, head coach, assistant coach, and captain over the winter and the role of the chair still vacant following Ian Watmore’s retirement in October, Harrison is the latest individual to leave a position of authority at the ECB.

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