Soper had been expected to take the nomination ahead of Clarke

Ex-Surrey chairman Mike Soper and Somerset chief Giles Clarke each earned nine votes, with either a county or cricket lawmakers the MCC not voting.

New candidates could now join the selection process, though both Soper and Clarke how vowed to stand again.

Soper had been favourite to take over from current chairman David Morgan.

Morgan stands down on 30 September to become president of world governing body the International Cricket Council.

Nominations for the second ballot close on 3 September, with voting taking place between 10 and 24 September and the results announced on 25 September.

Clarke, the head of the ECB's marketing committee, expects to be nominated by Durham and seconded by Gloucestershire and Essex.

"There have been encouraging phone calls this morning from various county chairmen suggesting I stand again and that is what I intend to do," the 53-year-old said.

I assumed people would vote for me because they thought I was a good bloke Mike Soper

"It's turning out to be a marathon, not a sprint," said Soper. "I'm quite philosophical about it - I'm guilty of having been a little too complacent about the vote. I should have come out fighting more."

The 61-year-old, who has acted as deputy chairman since 2002, continued: "No one has a God-given right to be chairman but I probably just assumed that people would vote for me because they thought I was a good bloke.

"But I should have been more proactive and told people about my record in business, what I did at Surrey and my views on all the big issues in cricket."