The current BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) secretary, Jay Shah has been appointed as an ICC Chairman unopposed. He will start his ICC Chairman tenure from December 01. Jay Shah has been one of the most influential figures in world cricket administration. He has played a huge role in the betterment of Indian cricket during his BCCI secretary tenure. Today, we will talk about the journey of Jay Shah from being an executive board member of CBCA in 2009 to an ICC Chairman now. We will also talk about his achievements as a cricket administrator. So let’s dive into it quickly.
Table of Contents
Elected unopposed as an ICC Chairman Jay Shah
The ICC (International Cricket Council) has appointed Jay Shah as a new chairman after Greg Barclay declined the extension. Greg Barclay became an ICC Chairman in November 2020 and then re-appointed in 2022. But now, the Kiwi has declined the extension for the role. He is an incumbent ICC Chairman right now and will serve till November 30, 2024. Jay Shah will commence his tenure on December 01, 2024.
Shah has been appointed as ICC Chair unopposed, which means there was no other candidate who applied for the role in front of him. 15 out of 16 members were supporting Shah to become an ICC Chairperson. With a majority of Shah’s side, he became an ICC Chair without any election process.
Jay Shah became the youngest to lead the ICC
With unanimous approval, Shah, at the age of 35, becomes the youngest administrator to head the global governing body. It’s amazing how quickly it took him to earn such a high degree of confidence from other board members.
Jay Shah is the 5th Indian to lead the ICC. The previous four have faced some difficulties to come in ICC. Some of them had to rely on Associate nations and Asian bloc votes, while some were not backed by other countries. The current BCCI secretary Jay Shah won the trust of the majority of members and became an ICC Chairman. Let’s now see the journey of Jay Shah from 2009-present.
Jay Shah started his administrative journey in 2009
Shah started his career as an administrator in 2009, working as an executive for the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) and the Central Board of Cricket, Ahmedabad (CBCA) at the district and state levels. He became the joint secretary of GCA in September 2013. As joint secretary, he worked with his father Amit Shah, the GCA president at the time, to oversee the development of the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Shah entered BCCI in 2015
In 2015, Shah joined the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)’s marketing and finance committees. He stepped down from the position of GCA joint secretary in September 2019 and was elected as BCCI secretary. He was the youngest of the five office bearers at that time. Shah won the BCCI Secretary position again in October 2022.
Shah become an ACC president in 2021
The Asian Cricket Council named Shah its president in January 2021. Shah won the Asian Cricket Council’s (ACC) presidential election again in January 2024.
Shah’s amazing work as BCCI secretary
Jay Shah has done a lot of amazing work in his 5-year BCCI secretary tenure. Some of them are:
(1) Uplifting women’s cricket in India
In his tenure, Women’s cricket in India has been given due priority. The BCCI increased the match fees of women’s cricketers, at par with men’s cricket teams. They have launched the Women’s Premier League (WPL) which helped women’s cricket in many ways. Also, women’s domestic cricket has been looked at closely for the betterment of Indian cricket.
(2) A smooth and secure IPL season during COVID-19
When COVID-19 broke out, everything stopped in the world. Shah’s BCCI made sure that the cricket in India didn’t stop as they organized IPL 2020 in Dubai, giving the fans something to cheer on in those hard times. They also held the 2nd leg of IPL 2021 after the first leg was stopped due to some COVID-19 cases coming out.
(3) Successful T20 WC 2021
The BCCI holds the hosting rights of the ICC T20 WC 2021, but the tournament happened in Dubai due to COVID-19 instead of India.
(4) IPL TV rights go fly high in Shah’s tenure
The Indian Premier League (IPL) ranks second in the world among sports leagues in terms of per-match value, behind the National Football League. In 2022, Jay Shah led BCCI in a record-breaking media rights deal for the IPL, wherein the league’s five-year rights were sold for a total of Rs 48,390 crore.
(5) Cricket in Olympics 2028
In the ICC Olympics Working Group, Shah also played a key role in securing cricket’s place in the 2028 Summer Olympics. It will now historically be a part of the Olympic Games. He was a big promoter of including it in the recent Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games.
Other things that Jay Shah led BCCI has done are primacy of test cricket, increasing the salary of domestic cricketers, infrastructure, fast-bowlers contract, establishing a high-performance training center in Bengaluru with all the facilities, helping former Indian cricketers, financial support to Indian contingents in Paris Olympics, etc. The BCCI hosted a very successful ODI WC last year (2023) in his tenure.
Jay Shah – the new ICC Chairman
Now, after serving as a BCCI secretary for five years, Jay Shah will become an ICC Chairman, starting his tenure on December 01. He can continue as BCCI secretary for one more year, but will now work with ICC. It will also help Shah to complete a 3-year cooling off period after his two back-to-back terms in BCCI.
Shah will have some challenges coming up as ICC Chairman. One of the most difficult ones is the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025. We might get the decision on CT 2025 before Shah joins ICC. Also, the file of a recently concluded T20 WC 2024, which happened in the US and WI hasn’t been closed yet. The ICC wasn’t happy with the pitches in the tournament and also faced some loss as well. Shah will look into the matter after starting his tenure. There are a few more challenges Shah will go through.
Let’s see how he does as ICC Chairman. He will look to replicate all the good things he has done as BCCI secretary as ICC Chairman.
Who Will Replace Jay Shah As BCCI Secretary If He Becomes An ICC Chairman
FAQs:-
(1) Who is the chief executive of ICC?
Currently, Geoff Allardice is an ICC chief executive. He became an ICC chief in 2021.
(2) Who is Amit Shah?
Amit Shah is a current Ministry of Home Affairs of India. He is the father of Jay Shah.
(3) Who were the other 4 Indians who led the ICC in the past?
Jagmohan Dalmiya, Sharad Pawar, N Srinivasan, and Shashank Manohar were the other 4 Indian than Jay Shah who led ICC in the past.
(4) Who was the first Indian to lead the ICC and when?
Jagmohan Dalmiya was the first Indian to lead the ICC in 1997. He needed the votes of the Asian bloc and the Associate nations to defeat the England-Australia-New Zealand-West Indies group’s challenges in a vertically divided ICC.
