Jay Shah Tipped To Be Next ICC Chief, Who Will Don BCCI Mantle?

 
Jay Shah, 35, would have weighed the beneficial options of taking the opportunity to become the youngest independent Chair of the International Cricket Council (ICC).  Come November, the ICC which has grown in profile since the time Star Sports became its global media rights partner with a billion dollar support, will have a new face at the helm, and Shah — the son of India’s Home Minister Amit Shah — is tipped to replace New Zealand’s Greg Barclay, a legal person who took over from another legal person, India’s Shashank Manohar who also called time after two terms. Once he takes a call to leave the high profile position as Secretary, BCCI, and gets elected through the ICC’s electoral process, Shah will have nothing to do with the establishment in India as he is supposed to be “independent” with no strings attached to the BCCI. Since 2019, when the BCCI put in place a new governance structure in the form of 9-member Apex Council, Shah has been the face of the BCCI which had a former India captain Sourav Ganguly as its President. Ganguly was in the spotlight during his three year tenure. He did not get a second term though, neither did the BCCI show any interest to back him for the top position of the ICC. But Ganguly’s successor, Roger Binny, a 1983 World Cup winning star has kept a low profile leaving Shah to hog the limelight. Shah, who was chosen for the best sports administrator by Harsh Goenka’s Ceat Cricket Rating, has taken a number of welfare measures for the cricketers in India. He will leave a void should he assume office at the ICC unless he anoints a like-minded individual to run the BCCI.