Giles Clarke's initial meeting with Kevin Pietersen took place in a setting in keeping with England's exuberant new captain. Unbeknown to each other, they were staying in the same hotel in Mexico in January. The chairman of the ECB, who was on holiday, diving with sea lions, initially mistook Pietersen and his pop star wife, Jessica, who were on their honeymoon, for a couple of young, fit Californians. He sent some flowers to their room with an apologetic note stating that there was no need for them to see him.

Clarke then went to the hotel gym at 4.30pm and read, in the signing-in book, that Pietersen had undertaken a workout at 6.01am. This on the first day of his honeymoon. “Later, he came up to us on the beach,” Clarke said. “I had never spoken to him before and I was very impressed. I spent most of my own honeymoon doing business and he was not going to let himself go to pot on his.

“He is my sort of person - very straight, direct and entrepreneurial. He gave up everything in South Africa to come to England because he believed in himself. My wife, Judy, was a showbiz journalist, so she understood Jessica very well.” Hence when Clarke was asked to rubber-stamp the England selectors' recommendation that Pietersen replace Michael Vaughan as captain in the summer, he did so without hesitation. “I feel we are lucky to have him,” Clarke said.

It was only one episode in a frenetic first year in office that Clarke completes on Friday. The post is unpaid and takes up so much of his time that he has stood down from the chairmanship of one public company, but he is keen to continue as ECB chairman beyond March next year, when his 18-month term of office is scheduled to come to an end.

Clarke, 55, says that much of his job is about networking and socialising for the good of the game. “I am also very proud that we have secured a new broadcasting deal until 2013, particularly given the crisis in the economy, that there has been so much unprecedented investment in amateur and professional facilities, and that we have a much better relationship with Pakistan now,” he said. “In future years I want to see them play in the Midlands and the North in particular, where there are large Asian communities.”

Clarke turns regularly to Sir Ian Botham, as he did when he was chairman of Somerset, and he has had “lots of conversations” with Geoffrey Boycott, whom he sees as an ideal mentor to England's emerging cricketers. He expects the Stanford tournament in Antigua to go ahead at the end of this month and is defensive about it.

“Tacky? I do not see what is so awful about Sir Allen flying in to Lord's in a helicopter,” Clarke said of the Texan billionaire's arrival to launch the tournament. “Because of this event, 170 schools will benefit through the Chance to shine programme.”

The growth of Twenty20 cricket has dominated Clarke's year in office in a way that was unimaginable last autumn. “We are looking to ensure our own EPL [English Premier League] is the best,” Clarke said. “Twenty20 has raised so much money for the game. The IPL [Indian Premier League] has been an extraordinary achievement in India with all the logistical issues there.”

Referring to the Indian Cricket League, he said: “The issues around unauthorised cricket have spoilt the atmosphere because we cannot ban players who participate and other countries can. This has bedevilled our relationships around the world.”

The IPL is interested in using pink balls, which are being given a trial by MCC, and their possible use in international cricket was discussed at the ECB's cricket committee meeting last week. “I am told they do not work under lights and that yellow balls would be better,” Clarke said.

As for the Test-match grounds, with the series against Australia next year in mind, Clarke is unconcerned about the present drainage difficulties and staff upheavals in Cardiff. “It has rained a lot and £600,000 of drainage work will be done on the outfield during the winter,” he said. “I am delighted Old Trafford has planning permission for their scheme. What does concern me is Health and Safety objections to redevelopment at the Oval because of the proximity of the gasometers. That is a nonsense.”

One of the ECB's objectives, he said, is to devolve more decision-making to the first-class counties. “We are not going to be prescriptive about the number of overseas players they should include but we will pay bonuses for England-qualified players,” Clarke said.

He knows that the most significant event next year will be not the Twenty20 World Cup but England's series against Australia. “Winning back the Ashes is absolutely crucial,” he said. “What has England's football team won?”

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