Quote: [size=12pt]Giles Clarke, who was on Thursday officially nominated as the first president of the England and Wales Cricket Board, was on the previous night involved in a blazing row with the editor of Wisden following criticism in the almanack that day.

Clarke, the outgoing ECB chairman, was incensed by the Editor’s Notes in which Lawrence Booth had slated the ‘Big Three’ of Australia, England and India for carving up world cricket between themselves, a move instigated by Clarke and the Indian board president, the controversial Narayan Srinivasan.

Clarke’s anger was then compounded by the speech given at the Wisden dinner at Lord’s on Wednesday night by Ehsan Mani, a former president of the International Cricket Council, who made no direct reference to the Big Three but rather pleaded the case of the other seven Test-playing countries. “Giles became more and more agitated,” according to one eyewitness. [/size]