Jay Shah, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), is set to replace Greg Barclay as the chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in November.
New Zealand’s Barclay told a virtual ICC board meeting on Tuesday evening that he would step down from the post and would not stand for his third term of two years.
At 35, Shah will be the youngest and the fifth Indian to head the ICC. Jagmohan Dalmiya, Sharad Pawar, N. Srinivasan and Shashank Manohar had earlier served as ICC chief.
The BCCI secretary has so far diplomatically evaded all questions relating to his taking over the post. However, sources told The Telegraph that once he had been assured of the support of the England and Australia cricket boards during the world governing body’s annual conference in Colombo last month, he decided to take the plunge.
It is likely that Shah — the chairperson of the finance and commercial affairs sub-committee, the most influential arm of the ICC — will be chosen uncontested and
his assuming the chair is a formality now.
The 16 current ICC directors “are now required to put forward nominations for the next chair” by August 27. The new chairman will assume charge on December 1.
ICC’s deputy chair Imran Khwaja, an associate member representative on the ICC board who gave Barclay a close fight in 2020, and Zimbabwe’s Tavengwa Mukuhlani — who pulled out of the race in 2022 — have already decided against contesting.
Shah is eligible to continue as BCCI secretary for another year, having been elected to the post in 2019, after which he would have to go through a compulsory three-year cooling-off period. He can now return to the BCCI after completing his tenure — a maximum of three terms of two years each — at the ICC.
There is talk that Shah played a role in choosing the associate members of the ICC board during the Colombo meeting — Khwaja, Mubashshir Usmani, the general secretary of the Emirates Cricket Board, and Malaysia’s Mahinda Vallipuram with whom he had worked on the Asian Cricket Council.
In his new role, Shah will have much to deal with. His ascension could be viewed as a setback for Pakistan. India is unlikely to play its Champions Trophy matches in Lahore early next year and the ICC has already allotted additional funds to the tournament’s budget considering some matches will be played elsewhere.
Disney Star, the official broadcaster for global cricket events from 2024 to 2027, is expecting some relief. Star wants to renegotiate the deal it signed with the ICC in 2022 for TV and digital rights. The board members have already been served with a notice from Star to “blend and extend” the deal on revised terms for a longer period.
The ICC’s administration too could undergo an overhaul once Shah takes over. Two senior officials — head of events Chris Tetley and Claire Furlong, the general manager of marketing and communications — have already put in their papers after allegations of financial irregularities surfaced in the running of the US leg of the T20 World Cup. The fate of CEO Geoff Allardice is still unclear.
It is uncertain who will replace Shah at the BCCI. BCCI treasurer Ashish Shelar is the front-runner with IPL chairman Arun Dhumal running him close.