By Martin Gough

As English cricket begins life after Tim Lamb, BBC Sport looks back on the successes and failures of the England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive.

Lamb had held the post of chief executive since the ECB was formed from the Test and County Cricket Board and the National Cricket Association in 1997.

Lamb came under fire over the Zimbabwe affair

In partnership, until 2002, with chairman Lord MacLaurin he helped prioritise the needs of the England national team ahead of county cricket.

A mission statement to provide a path for aspiring players "from playground to Test arena" saw club leagues re-jigged.

But Lamb was still accused of losing touch with the grassroots of the game, and the ECB under his control has faced charges of excessive bureaucracy.

Verdict: Mixed results

Before central contracts were introduced in 2000, the England management had no direct control over players, with the demands of county over country leading to fatigue and injury.

Now, centrally-contracted players may be rested when the England coach requires and spend longer preparing for Test matches than in the past.

Counties still complain they do not see enough of their star players, and fringe squad players - like James Anderson - may end up barely playing.

But the benefits of the scheme - England have won 10 of 18 Test series since its introduction - speaks for itself.

Verdict: Success

Successful Test debuts this year by batsmen Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell prove the gap between county and Test cricket is being bridged successfully by the ECB Academy.

Under Marsh (centre) the ECB Academy has been a great success

And the Academy's base at Loughborough University, which opened last year, boasts of being one of the most advanced of its kind in the world.

Founded in 2001, aping the model set-up in Australia and even poaching the Aussie Academy director Rod Marsh, the programme has sometimes struggled for focus.

Opinions change from year to year on whether it should be a finishing school for top county players or a training ground for youngsters with potential.

Ten players in England touring parties this winter have spent some time at the Academy, improving the depth of talent available to the national side.

Verdict: Success

Lamb helped steer the two-division County Championship into being, and as a result, county cricket is more competitive than ever before.

And he also gave backing to the arrival of the Twenty20 Cup, which has brought new audiences to the county game and stemmed calls for a cull in the number of sides.

He was comprehensively defeated, though, in a plan to merge the four-day Championship and the one-day league into a single format for 2006.

With new sponsorship and TV deals still to be agreed for the year after next, Lamb resigned at a time when his experience could have been vital.

Verdict: Mixed results

The controversy that appears to have forced Lamb's hand in stepping down has raged on and off for three years.

Lamb's argument that the ECB was a business that could not afford to boycott Zimbabwe ignored the realities of Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe's regime.

And the main fault of the ECB, with Lamb its most public face in the furore, was its failure to respond with a definitive solution.

England's 2003 World Cup bid was effectively derailed when a wait-and-see approach saw their match in Zimbabwe only cancelled at the 11th hour, with the players taking the lead.

Despite having over a year to formulate a plan for the scheduled tour this November, the ECB failed to ensure a repeat of the chaos did not occur.

Verdict: Failure