From Somerset to Lord's

2002: Clarke is appointed chairman of Somerset CCC

2004: Appointed chairman of ECB's Marketing Advisory Committee in 2004, leading the ECB's broadcast rights negotiations in 2004, 2008 and 2012

December 2004: The ECB announce new broadcast deal worth around £220m (an increase of 10% on the previous deal) covering the period 2006-2009 and ensuring exclusive live coverage for BskyB of all home domestic and international cricket. The deal also ended the age where English cricket had been available on free-to-view on television stretching back, with one or two breaks, to 1938

September 2007: Clarke is elected ECB chairman

April 2008: The first season of the IPL begins. Running concurrent with England's home international summer, the ECB fear it will attract international players and threatens the value of their broadcast rights. With the relationship between the ECB and BCCI poor, the ECB are excluded from ownership of the Champions League

June 2008: Allen Stanford lands his helicopter at Lord's and announces his five-year deal with the ECB to include a series of T20 matches

August 2008: ECB announce new broadcast deal with BskyB covering the period 2010-1013 and believed to be worth around £260m

Feb 2009: ECB announce it has severed ties with Stanford as it becomes clear a fraud investigation is on-going. Stanford is arrested in June

March 2009: Clarke is re-elected ECB chairman

2009: England win back the Ashes

May 2010: England win the World T20 in Barbados; the first global limited-overs trophy in their history

2010-11: England win the Ashes series in Australia for the first time since 1986-87

August 2011: England defeat India at Edgbaston to move to No. 1 in the Test rankings

January 2012: Awarded OBE for "services to cricket".

January 2012: ECB announce new broadcast deal with BskyB covering the period 2014-2017, again worth around £260m

March 2012: Re-elected ECB chairman; Stanford convicted of fraud and sentenced in June to 110 years in prison

Summer of 2013: England contest final of ICC Champions Trophy and win the Ashes

Winter of 2013: England are whitewashed 5-0 in the Ashes

January 2014: Big Three ICC deal secures England's place at the top table of world cricket

July 2014: First standalone sponsorship deal for England Women agreed

November 2014: Figures show that participation numbers have fallen in recreational cricket in England