Colin Graves will serve extra time at ECB to oversee Hundred’s introduction

Colin Graves will serve an additional six months as the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board after his plan to oversee the introduction of the Hundred was approved by members.

Graves’s tenure was to have expired next May but he will stay in place until November 2020, after the debut season of the domestic competition.

A special resolution, first floated last month and proposed by the ECB’s non-executive directors, was approved at Tuesday’s annual general meeting.

Speaking after the vote, Graves, the former Yorkshire chairman, said: “I would like to thank the ECB members for supporting this change to our articles of association.

“I believe they have made a decision that is in the best interests of the game. This will provide continuity during an important period, as we look to establish our new five-year plan, Inspiring Generations, a central component of which is the launch of the Hundred, next summer.”

The search for Graves’s successor will begin in September.

The Hundred will see the introduction of a fourth format to the cricket landscape, with 100 balls per innings and overs containing five or 10 deliveries rather than the standard six. It will see the return of live cricket to free-to-air television in the form of BBC broadcasts.

There has, though, been considerable criticism of the new project’s potential diminishing impact on the existing domestic schedule.

Eight, as yet unnamed, city-based teams will take part in the competition with a player draft taking place in the autumn.