On Sunday, 1 December, Jay Shah took charge as the youngest independent chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC). The former secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India is only 36, but he is no babe in the woods when it comes to cricket administration.
Shah got into the Gujarat Cricket Association nearly a decade and a half back before moving in an executive capacity to the world’s richest board for five years from 2019, which means he is well equipped to deal with the numerous challenges that are bound to confront him as the head of cricket’s governing body.
There is, however, a massive difference between being the secretary of a member board, however powerful it might be, and the boss of the sport’s premier body. As the BCCI secretary, Shah’s biggest endeavour was to maintain India’s pre-eminent status in the cricketing stratosphere, on and off the field.
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Now, his ambit has expanded immensely; he can no longer afford to look inwards and keep only one country’s development in mind. The growth of the sport is his biggest and most pressing priority, and that’s where his administrative sass will be tested.
Jay Shah’s first challenge: Solving Champions Trophy issue
Shah has straightaway walked into a crisis not necessarily of his making. The vexing issue of the hosting of the Champions Trophy might be in its final stages, but with the Pakistan Cricket Board refusing to back down and insisting on its pound of flesh – many might say with good reason – Shah will have to tread a delicate tightrope.
The Indian government’s decision to refuse permission for its national cricket team to travel across the border for the 50-over tournament in February-March next year wasn’t unexpected, but it has triggered angst and exasperation and a sense of outrage in Pakistan, who feel that they have been shortchanged because they have visited India for global events – the 2011 50-over World Cup, the 2016 T20 World Cup and last year’s 50-over extravaganza – without the Indians’ reciprocity.
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Shah isn’t just the ICC’s independent chairman who was until recently the BCCI secretary, he is also the son of India’s home minister. How he manages to marry all these elements together and leads the way in all concerned arriving at an acceptable compromise will be watched with great interest. It will be naïve to assume that he has a magic wand, by waving which he can solve the mini-crisis post haste and to everyone’s satisfaction. This is the first stern examination of his administrative capabilities, even if most events that have unravelled in the last few weeks are beyond his control.
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Possible revamp of World Test Championship?
One of Shah’s early proclamations on becoming the second Indian after Shashank Manohar to hold the post of the ICC’s independent chairman revolved around the five-day game. “While the T20 is a naturally exciting format, it is equally important that Test cricket remains a priority for everyone as it forms the bedrock of our game,” he said. “We must see to it that cricketers are driven to the longer format and our efforts will be channelised towards this goal.”
As things stand, 12 nations play Test cricket, of whom only nine participate in the World Test Championship , run over two-year cycles with each of the nine nations mandated to play six series – three at home, three away – of at least two Tests. Is a change to that format necessary, if not inevitable? One of the suggestions has been to have a two-tier championship with relegations and promotions to make it more inclusive and exciting, allowing for all 12 teams to be a part of the competition and for incentives and disincentives for achievements and underperformances respectively.
That’s, however, only the tip of the iceberg. One of Manohar’s first far-reaching decisions after assuming charge was the scrapping of the Big Three formula where a significant portion of the ICC’s revenues was to be distributed unequally between India, Australia and England and the rest went to the other nations on different percentages.
That move sparked heated debate and plenty of criticism across the cricketing world, which took offence to the haves getting more and the have-nots not getting enough. That said, the binning of that revenue-sharing model hasn’t led to a greater level playing field when it comes to the sport itself.
Perhaps there already is a system in place, but it wouldn’t be the worst idea to find out how the money received from the ICC are spent by the countries that continue to spiral downwards – what their domestic structure is, how much has been ploughed into infrastructure, what’s the investment in coaching, how the sport is being made attractive to different sections of society.
While the ICC has many flaws – it’s worth remembering that the ICC is an amorphous body made up of its member constituents – it is also incumbent on individual governing bodies to run the sport professionally in their own countries and not hide behind empathy and sympathy when they themselves are unwilling to put their (?) money where their mouth is.
Challenges of keeping Test cricket relevant
Test cricket is rapidly losing traction in several countries, where matches are played in front of empty stands and the pool of players committed to the longer version is fast dwindling. The lure of T20 franchise cricket is far too attractive for players not to go down that route, even if it is at the expense of representing their country. To blame the players for selfishness and putting money before the country is puerile because ultimately, everyone is entitled to earn their livelihood through whichever legal way they deem fit.
At the start of this year, Cricket Australia chair Mike Baird had floated the idea of a corpus fund of US $15 million, largely driven by the three financial powerhouses of the sport – the original and disabused Big Three – to ensure a minimum Test payment for all players and cover costs while travelling abroad for Test series.
It was a proposal that was endorsed by Shah, also the chair of the ICC’s Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee. Now that he is in a position to do something about it and whip up support from the ICC Board, Shah will be expected to ensure that the proposal becomes a reality. That won’t solve all the woes of the cricket world, needless to say, but it is at least a starting point.
One of the solutions to ensuring the primacy of Test cricket might seem to be to restrict the number of franchise leagues in which players can participate, but that’s a tricky road to embark on. Already, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s move to deny NOCs to players with standard all-format county contracts to play in the Pakistan Super League next year has triggered threats of legal action, and unfair trade practice charges will need to be considered for the world body to impose restrictions of any kind. It’s this rocky terrain that Shah and his colleagues must navigate, which is easier said than done.
Other items on his agenda will include spreading the wings of the women’s game, drive home the message of inclusivity and oversee the return to the Olympic Games of the sport in Los Angeles in 2028 after 128 years. All in all, a full plate but not a plateful of problems only.