Soper charts ambitious course in race to lead ECB

English cricket expects Mike Soper to succeed David Morgan as chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Nominations for the post, which became vacant when Morgan was elected recently as chairman of the International Cricket Council, close today at 5pm. It looks certain to be a two-horse race between the 61-year-old Soper and the Somerset chairman, Giles Clarke.

It had been expected that Sir Bill Morris would throw his hat into the ring, but yesterday the former general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union said: "I've given it a lot of thought and I've decided not to put my name forward."

Soper is not anticipating any other runners. He is the clear favourite and said yesterday: "I did a straw poll around the counties at the start to see what sort of support I'd get and I haven't heard of any other candidates, other than Giles Clarke. I think it's going to be a two-horse race."

Soper's dream is to get English cricket shipshape, so his keen interest in naval history is appropriate. As a former chairman of Surrey from 1995 to 2003 he also brings cricketing experience to the role.

He said: "I have been passionate about cricket all my life. I feel it can become the No 1 sport in this country."

Soper, who contested the last election to the ECB post, against Morgan, added: "A lot of people say I lost because I believe cricket could take on soccer. I think that came true, briefly, the other day, when the Liverpool v Aston Villa game was watched by fewer people than the Twenty20 match at The Oval. That would never have happened 20 years ago."

Should he win the vote - the result is expected in about three weeks' time - the former businessman expects a series of political battles, not least between those counties which host Test matches and the other Championship sides.

He said: "I feel that possibly at the moment there is unfairness. But you have to have Test match grounds to generate revenue and you have to have non-Test match grounds to keep the competitions going, so people can go through the system and play Test-match cricket.

"The 'them and us' situation will never go away but it will quieten down. Provided people feel that they are treated equally then it takes away the idea of envy."

Soper, who recently got rid of his vast collection of naval cutlasses and a nine-pound cannon, hasbone cancer. Rather than holding him back, it has made him even more driven.

"When you are told you have six months to live, as I was six and a half years ago, it really does focus the mind. I remember someone asking me how I viewed the future. I replied that if my life expectancy is a quarter of what it should normally be, then I have to cram four times as much into the time that I have left."

The latest prognosis is that he has four years left, and most of that time he wants to devote to cricket.