Jury is still out on where Jay Shah would be placed when India’s cricket administrators are judged for their contribution to the game but what would remain undeniable is the no fuss manner in which he made space for himself in the corridors of power first nationally and now globally. The 35-year-old was elected unopposed as the chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC), the youngest ever to reach this position. Those who have seen the workings of BCCI, during his time as Board secretary, are not surprised by the rise and vouch for his ability to connect with players at a personal level.
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 moved to state level administration as an executive with the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) and ultimately became its Joint secretary in 2013.
During his time there, he is credited with creating a structured system of age group coaching which ensured that when the players reached the Ranji level, they were up to speed in senior cricket. Result was Gujarat’s Ranji Trophy win in 2016-17.
Equation with Players
It’s not that past ICC heads from India have not had good equations with players.
Jagmohan Dalmiya, and N Srinivasan, two successful businessmen who became natural administrators, and Sharad Pawar, a career politician, did seek opinions from the senior players they trusted during their tenures as BCCI Presidents before heading to the ICC.
But in case of Shah, whether it is skipper Rohit Sharma, star batter Virat Kohli or bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah or next-in-line players like Ishan Kishan, and Hardik Pandya, he manages to have an equation with anyone who wants to be heard.
Rohit had gone to the extent of describing Shah as one of the “three pillars” that made the T20 World Cup triumph possible in the West Indies earlier this year.
He has also stuck to his brief of taking final calls on policy matters and administrative issues while leaving the decision-making on cricketing issues to professionals.
When one looks at his tenure of five years, he had to negotiate a very challenging phase for two years — 2020 and 2021 — when COVID-19 rocked the world bringing everything to a halt.
To oversee the creation of bio bubbles during the IPL, handling positive cases by creating medical teams within those bubbles and ensuring the completion of tournaments was one of the first obstacles he overcame.
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.
It is one aspect in which he stands above his predecessors, who never realised the potential of the women’s game.
His decision to ensure parity by offering equal match fees to the Indian women’s cricket team (Rs 15 lakh per Test, Rs 8 lakh per ODI and Rs 4 lakh per T20I for first XI players) was a step in the right direction.
Another policy decision where he walked the talk was incentivisation of Test cricket. India has a 10-Test season this year and if Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli happen to play all the games, they would earn match fees of Rs six crore (Rs 60 lakh per match inclusive of Rs 45 lakh incentive).
Incidentally, that is a mere Rs one crore less than their A central retainership contract.
This is not to say that Shah does not or cannot crack the whip when needed.
There was a fairly powerful rap on the knuckles for younger players who were perceived to be running after IPL riches ignoring domestic cricket.
Both Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer lost their central contracts for not prioritising domestic cricket.
But Shah also showed that he does not believe in a one-size-fits-all policy. Therefore, Rohit, Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah were deservingly given their breaks when sought by them.
Allowing chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar a free hand on matters like Kishan and Iyer’s contracts and the elevation of Suryakumar Yadav as captain of the T20 team were bold calls.
Under his watch, no deserving India cricketer could claim that he wasn’t considered good enough to be in national reckoning despite good performances.
For perspective, Srinivasan, as sitting president of BCCI, didn’t allow Mohinder Amarnath to sack MS Dhoni from captaincy despite the 0-8 Test humiliation in England and Australia.
Another achievement of Shah is the completion of the new NCA (National Cricket Academy) which is a Centre of Excellence with capability of holding multiple first-class games at one venue during the domestic season.
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