 "ICC Chairman Jay Shah was honoured with the ‘Outstanding Achievement Award for Contributions to Indian Women’s Cricket’ on Friday at CNN-News18’s Indian of the Year Award ceremony. YouTube/News18")
International Cricket Council (ICC) Chairman Jay Shah on Friday was awarded with the Indian of the Year 2025 Outstanding Achievement award by CNN News18 and the former secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said that his favourite decision of tenure in the Indian board was introduction of pay parity. He also revealed the reason behind why he he pushed for equal pay for male and female Indian internationals.
Reforms brought in the women’s game under Jay have been regarded as key reasons behind India’s recent World Cup win in the ICC Women’s World Cup. The players too have praised Jay for his attempts in uplifting the levels of women’s cricket in the country.
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Jay Shah lauds Indian women’s team
Jay, who had a fruitful five-year tenure as the BCCI secretary, said that his favourite decisions were the two that revolutionised the women’s game.
“I took up the role of the BCCI secretary on 23 October 2019. From that day till 1 December 2024, we took a lot of decisions and earned a lot of achievements as well,” he said after winning the award. He dedicated the accolade to Harmanpreet Kaur, Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami, the women’s team members who were present in the ceremony.
“We strengthened the domestic structure, we brought pay parity, we launched WPL, Rs 50000 crore of media rights we sold, that too without controversy. We also set up the National Cricket Academy where there are all the facilities. Perth, Cape Town, Sydney, Lord’s all kind of pitches are there for practice.
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View All“But my favourite decisions are pay parity and the launch of WPL. We saw the result of these recently. I would like to congratulate Harman and her team. You won everyone’s hearts and also put pressure on the men to win,” the ICC Chairman added.
‘Parents only wanted Virat and Rohit’
As Harmanpreet, who won Indian of the Year Champion Of The World award, showed gratitude towards Jay, the former BCCI president also revealed the motivation behind bringing in pay parity.
“When parents have a girl and a boy they want to make the boy Virat or Rohit but no one wants to make their girls Harman or Smriti. We brought pay parity so that parents will now make their girls Harman or Smriti as well,” said Jay for the decision taken in October 2022.