LORD Marland, a good friend of Saints chairman Rupert Lowe, could become the new chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The former Conservative party treasurer has been confirmed as the only challenger to Giles Clarke for the chairmanship.

He was the only other nomination for the post before last night's midnight deadline and the two will now contest an election for the post, which has been filled by Clarke for the past two years.

Clarke has been proposed by Nottinghamshire and seconded by Northamptonshire and Middlesex while Marland was proposed by Lancashire and seconded by Hampshire and Leicestershire.

Ballot papers are expected to be sent out this week to the 18 first class counties and the MCC which have to be submitted by Monday, February 9 with the result being announced the following day.

The successful candidate will then be put forward for election to the 41 full members of the ECB, which includes the non-first class counties, and they will ratify the decision by February 25.

Marland believes both candidates have the support of seven counties and ''there are four or five up in the air, so I think he's pretty worried.''

Marland was one of five people to underwrite the part-financing of St Mary’s back in 1999.

In 2006, Marland told the Daily Echo that Saints fans were “lucky” to have Lowe as chairman.

“Very rarely these days do you get someone of the quality of Rupert Lowe running a business,” he said.

It was announced at the time that Marland held more than 250,000 shares in Saints’ parent company, Southampton Leisure Holdings.

Marland's emergence has given a direct choice between Clarke's more confrontational style - which has secured lucrative contracts with Sky television and Sir Allen Stanford - or the more conciliatory style of the challenger.

Marland said he will attempt to unify the county game behind the England team should he win enough support to become the new chairman.

Asked how he would unify the domestic game, Marland explained: ''You do all these things with negotiation and good manners and courtesy and listen to the counties - I want to consult and involve the counties.

''I want to bring all the counties together striving for a common aim, which is to make England a very good cricketing nation with a first-class team and at the moment we've got a disunited county system with a very under-performing England team.

''Cricket prospers all the way down if the England team do well because people want to go and watch cricket. There was huge interest in cricket after we won the Ashes in 2005 and ultimately counties will do very well from that if the England team do well.''

If Marland is to win the election he must win the support of at least 10 votes from the 18 counties and the MCC and his candidature would then be ratified by the full ECB Board.

He believes his negotiating skills, honed during years as a successful businessman and politician, will serve him well while dealing with India, the main power in world cricket, should he get the job.

Clarke, an equally successful businessman before he became ECB chairman, has struggled in his relations with India, most notably during the negotiations for the Champions League which left England on the outside with Australia and South Africa becoming partner countries instead.

''I've negotiated with people overseas over a very long time,'' said Marland. ''I've spent my whole life negotiating and it's what I like doing best and I feel very confident about it, but it won't be through confrontation.

''My instinct is that we should have signed that (Champions League) agreement and been at the top table of cricket as a result and we didn't - we chose not to join in and find other alternatives, which have not succeeded.

''If the top teams in world cricket are there we should be there with them and we should be exerting our influence on the times and the dates that tournament takes place, but at the moment we have a disastrous relationship with those three teams and can't have an influence.''