Giles Clarke celebrated his rapid rise within the sport with his wife, Judy — who often watches cricket with him in Taunton — at a dinner in Central London last night. No matter that he could afford to buy the restaurant, and many more, outright; his son, Jack, after whom the new chairman of the ECB’s brasserie in Bristol is named, insisted on picking up the tab.

The cricket administrators who will entertain Clarke in Sri Lanka and New Zealand this winter had better not serve him any plonk. Clarke is best known not as the chairman of Somerset, nor for brokering lucrative television deals on behalf of the ECB, but as the founder of Majestic Wine, as well as Pet City. Not the least reason why he defeated Michael Soper in a ballot for the position is because of a more far-reaching and successful business career.

At a time when counties such as Worcestershire have been wondering how to pay their bills after the flooding this summer, Clarke has secured a fivefold increase in income from ESPN Star Sports (ESS), the Asian broadcaster. That, too, will have swung a vote or two his way from county committees who conducted interviews that lasted for as long as two hours.

Clarke will be a different chairman from the emollient David Morgan. He will be more outspoken, more decisive, more assertive, more controversial. He will willingly delegate, as he has done to Richard Gould, the Somerset chief executive, but only if he believes that they are up to the job. “The ECB will become a more open and communicative body,” Clarke said. “We need to be more clear and prompt. David Collier [the Chief Executive] has done a lot in terms of organisation, but we have to do more in communications.

“Everyone knows I have a reputation for being clear and decisive. We have to build cricket’s position with the government and encourage the concept among young people of teamwork and courtesy. It is extremely important the England side and captain set the right tone and example. I feel very strongly about that. Poor behaviour, drinking and sledging have not been tolerated in my time as chairman of Somerset. We are all just stewards of the game.”

Clarke, 54, will pay particular heed to the views of Sir Ian Botham, who advised him on Somerset cricketing matters, Mike Atherton — “although I do not agree with many of his conclusions” — and Phil Edmonds, a fellow entrepreneur and until recently chairman of Middlesex. “He said to me, ‘It has taken 130 years to build up county cricket and it would be crazy to destroy it with an amalgamation of clubs’,” Clarke said. “One of the problems we have in administration is that retired leading cricketers go into the media because the rewards are higher.

“The key thing is that cricket is short of capital and the television deals with Sky [£220 million] and ESS [£40 million] are providing it for ambitious redevelopment plans. The game would be bankrupt and would have been changed radically without them.

“It is known that people who do not have access to Sky [News Corporation, parent company of The Times, has a 31 per cent stake in BSkyB] are the elderly, not the young. Most live football matches are seen on Sky and its popularity does not seem to have been affected. We need to have a cap on money spent on England squads because we want to improve facilities.”

There will be no reversion on Clarke’s watch to three-day county cricket. “What do spectators want to watch?” he said. “We need to do some proper research. I believe the four-day game is essential to the national side.”

Twenty20 cricket, he believes, is not going to damage Test cricket. “What Test crowds want is a contest,” he said. “For instance, Bangladesh are improving visibly and there are a lot of Bangladeshis in Britain, especially Essex, who I hope will come and watch the England side. I think it will be a multicultural England side in a few years’ time and I hope we can reach into the Somali community as well as the Caribbean population. The ‘Chance to shine’ programme [the initiative to promote cricket in state schools] is important.” He is also a keen promoter of recreational cricket.

Clarke’s term of office lasts until March 2009. He will not be drawn for the time being on Zimbabwe — “they are not playing Test cricket, so it is not a live issue and the Government will decide whether they should be given visas” — or staging agreements, which award a ground international cricket for a set period. He did, though, have a conciliatory lunch recently with Rod Bransgrove, the chairman of Hampshire, a kindred entrepreneurial spirit dedicated to securing Test cricket for the Rose Bowl and with whom he, and indeed the ECB directors, have not always seen eye to eye.

Clarke will stand down as chairman of Somerset, who have just won promotion to the first division of the LV County Championship. His new role will also be unpaid and is one that he can afford to carry out.

In the mid-1990s he was included on the Sunday Times Rich List but he took steps to ensure that his financial interests — ranging from companies incorporating the second-biggest sellers of phone handsets in Britain to bohemian cafés and property and factories in India and China — were not in the public eye. For one thing, he found such estimations of wealth too vulgar. For another, he did not like Jack’s friends gawping at it at school. Clarke, the entrepreneur, is first and foremost a family man.

Man of interests

— Giles Clarke was educated at Rugby and Oxford University, where he paid his way through gambling

— Founded Majestic Wine and Pet City

— Business interests incorporate telephone handsets, a restaurant in Bristol, the bohemian Boston Tea Party cafés, property and factories

— A keen club cricketer, he has been chairman of Somerset and of the ECB’s marketing committee