The decision of US authorities to charge Sir Allen Stanford with fraud led to calls for Clarke to step down.

Stanford had been behind the lucrative winner-takes-all clash in Antigua last year that featured the England team.

But asked by the BBC if he had thought of quitting, Clarke said: “I haven’t – and that’s not because I’m bull-headed or ignorant of other’s opinions.”

Clarke said a lot of the criticism aimed in his direction had been unfair and insisted the England and Wales Cricket Board had succeeded in attracting money into the domestic game by joining forces with Stanford.

“We have to raise our monies from all kinds of places. Sport cannot exist without money,” Clarke told BBc Radio 5 Live. “The issue at the time was ‘Can he (Stanford) pay?’ When somebody offers those sorts of sums of money you want to be completely satisfied he’s going to be capable of paying.

“He actually did pay and he was capable of paying.”

As ECB chairman, Clarke struck a deal with Stanford to play five $20M matches – the first took place in Antigua last November, with each member of the Stanford Super Stars pocketing $1M for their 10-wicket win over England.

But all future games have been scrapped following the Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision to charge Stanford with an $8 B fraud.

Both the Leicestershire chairman Neil Davidson and Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove called for the 55-year-old Clarke to resign following the news.

But Clarke insisted he had plenty of support to continue as chairman of the ECB, claiming he had received “over 9 000 e-mails” from people telling him to “pay no attention” to calls for him to step down.

“I have to live with the consequences of the decisions our board takes and the criticisms that we receive,” he added.

“There has been some criticism which I think is constructive and sensible and we’ll listen to.

“There has also been some singularly unpleasant stuff which I fail to see is going to encourage anybody to take on voluntary unpaid job.” (BBC Sport)