He will remain in place until the end of the season with early frontrunners to replace him rumoured to be Surrey County Cricket Club chief executive Richard Gould and Brian Havill, the ECB's finance director.

Collier was appointed chief executive of the ECB in 2004, replacing Tim Lamb after spells in charge of Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Gloucestershire County Cricket Clubs.

The Loughborough University graduate has previously worked in the travel and leisure industries including a spell as senior vice-president of American Airlines, while he is currently an independent director of Great Britain Hockey and a former international class one hockey umpire.

During Collier's tenure, England won four Ashes series against Australia including the first triumph in Australia for almost 20 years in 2011.

They became World Twenty20 champions in 2010 in the West Indies and rose to the top of the International Cricket Council's world Test rankings.

He also overseen the ECB's successful bid to host the 2019 Cricket World Cup in England and Wales.

"When we reflect on the past 10 years we will all recognise the huge debt of gratitude which is owed by cricket in England and Wales to David Collier and the management teams he has built and revitalised during that period," said ECB chairman Giles Clarke.

"David has overseen the most successful period of development, playing success and growth for cricket in England and Wales and we are extremely grateful to him."

England won the first of four Ashes series under David Collier's tenure in 2005




Collier is credited with helping to substantially increase the financial revenues of the ECB in the last decade with reports suggesting the governing body has reserves of around £40 million ($68 million/€50 million).

However, his decision to sell live broadcast rights of England test matches to subscription broadcaster Sky was met with much criticism, while he was a key figure in negotiating a deal with Allen Stanford for England to play West Indies in a big-money, winner-takes-all Twenty20 match in Antigua in 2008.

Texan Stanford was jailed for 110 years by a United States court in 2012 after he was found guilty of defrauding investors in a bogus scheme to the tune of more than £4.5 billion ($7 billion/€5.5 billion).

"After 10 years at the ECB I believe it is the right time to step aside and retire from the position of chief executive as I shall turn 60 in the spring and I do believe the time is right for a new chief executive to open the batting," said Collier, who had been interviewed for the chief executive's position at world governing body the International Cricket Council in 2012 but lost out to South African Dave Richardson.

"I am immensely proud of the achievements and the enormous strides forward which cricket in England and Wales has made during the past decade."

Collier was recently interviewed by the Commonwealth Games Federation for its role as chief executive, which was given to David Grevemberg.

His departure comes after Paul Downton replaced Hugh Morris as ECB managing director last October, while Peter Moores took over from Andy Flower as England coach in April.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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