Tom Harrison has reiterated his desire to continue as England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive and insisted he will not run away from the challenges facing the organisation.

Chris Silverwood, Ashley Giles and Graham Thorpe have all lost their jobs in the wake of a 4-0 Ashes loss, which followed a poor 2021 where nine out of 15 Tests ended in defeat and England exited the Twenty20 World Cup in the semi-final stage.

Away from on the field, the ECB and Harrison have faced scrutiny for their role in the racism crisis which has hit cricket in the wake of Azeem Rafiq’s allegations of racism and bullying during his time at Yorkshire.

Speaking from Lord’s on Friday, Harrison said: “I think what I would like to do is not to be seen running away from the challenges of addressing the issues.

“We are in a particular moment where we have an interim chair, we’re looking for a full-time chair, and we have a lot of discussions under way.

“This is a moment where I think I have the support of the board and it is a very tough moment. Honestly the toughest moments I have experienced in my career but I just feel I need to, until literally I feel it is the right moment, keep going.

“I want to take English cricket back to a place where there is stability and calmness frankly in the environment, and there is a sense we are heading in the right direction.”

He continued: “We do have to reflect hard on what happened (at the Ashes) but I am not saying I am clinging on for grim death, that is not what I am doing. I am doing this because I think it is the right thing for English cricket right now and as soon as that is not the case, you will not have to push me.”

During a visit to Australia in the winter, Harrison admitted a red-ball reset is required for English cricket and has brought Sir Andrew Strauss back into the fold on a short-term basis to help appoint an interim head coach for next month’s tour of the West Indies.

“We’ve got to get the Test team back on track,” the ECB chief executive said.

“We are building a plan to get the Test team back into a good place. The white-ball team also needs to be part of that focus and making sure that we’re building on strong performances and retaining that top of the world status in that space.

“We clearly have a huge issue around resetting red ball cricket through our domestic game and making sure that we are setting ourselves up to win at Test level, through the game, and that’s the conversation that we’re going to be having.

“But I’m here because I think when times are really difficult, you need people to step into that challenge and I am here to do that. I’ve never been more determined to do that. I’m not running away from this challenge.

“It has been exceptionally difficult but I’m not running away, because it needs leadership and it needs consistency in terms of how we build back and get to a place where the game can recover from an extremely difficult period, both on and off the field.”

Once the tour of the West Indies is over, England have two months before they return to international duty for the visit of New Zealand at the beginning of June.

Harrison warned the players who feature in all three formats will be expected back from the Indian Premier League before the franchise tournament has concluded.

“With the extension of the IPL, we have been very clear with the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) that our international season starts when it starts, and if that means players missing out on IPL finals at the end of it that is what happens,” he stated.

Amidst the fall-out of the Ashes series, Harrison met with a delegation of Yorkshire on Tuesday, who provided a comprehensive presentation of the progress made by Lord Patel since he took over as chairman at Headingley with the intention of leading the county through its discrimination issues.

An extraordinary general meeting was set to take place on Wednesday but had to be cancelled and since then former Yorkshire chair Robin Smith has been involved in a back-and-forth debate with Lord Patel.

Harrison said: “Any suggestion that there is not a problem with racism in Yorkshire is a cause for great concern.”