Giles Clarke has been given a timely boost following last week's damaging revelations about Allen Stanford, after his re-election as chairman of the ECB was officially ratified.
Clarke was elected for his first term in 2007 after serving as chairman of Somerset, but in the last few days he has faced loud calls to resign after Stanford was charged with fraud by the US authorities. On Monday, however, the 41 members of the ECB confirmed his recent re-election, enabling him to remain in office until March 31, 2011.
Clarke's loudest critics have been Neil Davidson and Rod Bransgrove, the chairmen of Leicestershire and Hampshire respectively, who accuse him of debasing the game by brokering the US$100 million deal with Stanford that was last week terminated by the ECB.
However, the only potential challenger to Clarke, Lord Marland of Odstock, withdrew from the nomination process when it became clear that few of the counties supported him.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4, the former ECB vice-chairman Mike Soper - whom Clarke defeated to win his first election in 2007 - said he would consider another challenge at some point in the future, after expressing his lack of confidence in the management structure.
"The thing I'm very sad about is the fact that cricket has been mauled all the way through this and the individuals seem to put more on finance than the actual game itself," said Soper. "We've lost Vodafone, we've now lost Stanford, and it's the implications for cricket that worry me more than anything else.
"When Giles was elected, it was because he was 70% an entrepreneur and 30% a cricket lover. I was always the reverse. I think if he's that great an entrepreneur, he ought to get these sponsors, replace them and then resign. It's too easy to walk away but I would consider challenging only if the game wanted a cricket lover first and an entrepreneur second."