Jay Shah will take over as the next chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) on December 1. He will become the fifth Indian to climb atop the pinnacle of cricket’s global administrative body.
The 35-year-old was elected unopposed as the chairman of the ICC, the youngest ever to reach this position.He will replace Greg Barclay.
Jagmohan Dalmiya, Sharad Pawar, N Srinivasan and Shashank Manohar are the other four from the country to have held the high-profile post.
Shah is currently serving as the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI. He will have a three-year term, with an option to carry on for three more years. But before that, Shah will have to relinquish his BCCI role, which he has held since 2019.
Shah’s formal entry into cricket administration was in 2009 when he started working at the district level with the Central Board of Cricket Ahmedabad (CBCA). He then progressed to state-level administration as an executive with the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA), and eventually became its joint secretary in 2013.
During his time with GCA, Shah is known to have initiated a structured system of age-group coaching which made sure that when players reached the Ranji level, they were in tune with senior cricket. This was followed by Gujarat winning the Ranji Trophy in the 2016-17 season.
He is also credited with playing a key role in developing the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad – the world’s biggest cricket stadium. Shah’s work at the GCA drove his rise within Indian cricket’s administrative sphere.
He joined the BCCI in 2015 as a member of the finance and marketing committees. His influence grew, and by 2019, he had become the youngest-ever BCCI secretary at 31 years of age.
His biggest achievement, however, would be the start of the Women Premier League (WPL) which had not taken off during earlier years.
He successfully delivered two consecutive editions and icing on the cake was the fact that WPL offered the best pay package for women’s T20 games in the market.
Confirming what had been on the cards for a while, Jay Shah was elected unopposed as the next chair of the International Cricket Council.
