How Jay Shah became the most powerful man in global cricket

Confirming what had been on the cards for a while, Jay Shah was elected unopposed as the next chair of the International Cricket Council. The Indian, the son of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, will assume his new role on December 1. The 35-year-old will replace Greg Barclay and would be the youngest ICC Chair. Here’s a look at his rise and rise in cricket administration.

2009: Entry into administration

Shah’s formal entry into cricket administration came in 2009 when he started working with the Central Board of Cricket, Ahmedabad (CBCA). He went on to work at the state level – first as an executive with the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA). In 2011, he was included in the marketing committee of the BCCI. By the time he was 25, he had risen to the post of GCA secretary in 2013 and represented the association during the BCCI’s Annual General Body meeting. In 2015, Shah is said to have payed a key role behind the scenes in the ouster of former BCCI president N Srinivasan. He had backed Anurag Thakur, who pipped Srinivasan’s candidate Sanjay Patel by one vote for the secretary’s post.

World’s largest stadium

Shah’s first head-turning move was at the Gujarat Cricket Association. After taking over as the joint secretary in 2013, when his father was the state unit president, Shah was at the forefront of the ambitious revamp of the then Motera Stadium. From the announcement, it was labelled as the world’s biggest stadium. And in 2020, the 1,32,000-seater was the venue for the Namaste Trump event, where former US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally. In 2021, the venue hosted its first Test and was renamed the Narendra Modi Stadium.

2019: Rise as BCCI gen-sec

In 2019, came the big promotion as 31-year-old Shah became BCCI secretary, taking up arguably the most powerful role in all cricket, not just in India. While Sourav Ganguly’s appointment as BCCI president made the headlines back then, Shah’s ascension was quiet but significant. A new regime was taking over BCCI after a tumultuous period that saw plenty of back and forth between the Supreme Court and the Committee of Administrators. In 2022, Shah was re-elected unopposed while Ganguly made way for Roger Binny.

2020-2021: IPL during Covid times

The tournament had its challenges but Shah oversaw that the lucrative IPL wouldn’t halt during the pandemic when most global sport came to a standstill. The 2020 edition was played entirely in a bio-secure bubble in the United Arab Emirates. In 2021, the tournament began in India but had to be suspended during the deadly wave of Covid-19 cases. It resumed later in the year, once again in the UAE.

Key measures

After not hosting the Ranji Trophy in 2020 and a curtailed version in 2021 because of the pandemic which affected domestic players’ income significantly, Shah announced a new payment structure in September 2021. As per the dynamic module, a cricketer who has played more than 40 matches in his career will get a match fee of Rs 60,000 per day. Earlier this year, Shah also announced a new plan that will increase a player’s match fee significantly based on the number of Tests played during a season. In addition to a Test match fee of Rs 15 lakh, if someone played 75 percent of the matches in a season, they would earn an additional Rs 45 lakh per Test match.

2021: Leading Asian Cricket Council

Shah was appointed President of the Asian Cricket Council, in a prelude to his rise to the top of the global game. He was the youngest President of the ACC too. Later in 2022, Shah became Chairman of the Finance & Commercial Affairs (F&C) Committee at the ICC.

2022: IPL media rights

Shah’s tenure in the BCCI also saw a record-breaking deal for IPL media rights worth Rs 48,390 crore for a five-year period. The combined valuation from the bids received back then made the IPL the second-most valued sporting league in terms of per-match value, behind the USA’s National Football League.

2022-23: WPL and equal match fees

After years of delays and inertia from administrators to hold a proper league for female cricketers instead of an exhibition tournament, the Women’s Premier League became a reality in late 2022 and early 2023. And immediately, the league started breaking records for women’s cricket, starting from team ownership bids and media rights valuation, to even player wages through the inaugural auction. Also late in 2022, BCCI said women cricketers would be paid the same match fee as their male counterparts, in an attempt to bridge the income gap that exists in cricket. This, however, didn’t change the existing central contracts structure. The WPL has now completed two successful seasons.

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2024: India’s T20 World Cup win

Much before there was any clarity on India’s squad for the T20 World Cup, Shah – in a statement that signified the power he wielded in the board – had declared in February that Rohit Sharma would be the captain for the tournament in the United States and the West Indies. India went on to win the World Cup, not long after the disappointment of losing the final of the ODI mega event in November 2023. The T20 World Cup win marked the end of India’s 11-year wait for an ICC title.

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