With Jay Shah at the helm of ICC affairs, cricket is in safe hands

Add as a preferred source on Google

You ask him for an interview and he will not say no to it. We are talking about ICC's independent chairman Jay Shah, whose actions speak louder than his voice and that's why he doesn't need to give interviews.

The former secretary of BCCI loves India's success story. Under his guidance, India are white ball champions and he has every reason to feel like a boss. However, he doesn't behave like one.

The best part of the story of being a Jay Shah is his one-liner on everything and everyone. Be it the members of BCCI state affiliated units, office-bearers of BCCI, Shah is ready to describe them all in one-line whenever their names come up for discussion and no one is spared. His sense of humour is so infectious that even members who aren't in close proximity won't like to miss those one-liners.

Shah isn't the boss of world cricket simply because of his qualities to handle tough situations with utmost ease. He is constantly cracking jokes and very easily makes the surrounding quite informal and that's what makes him a stand-out administrator.

The lunch gathering inside a Kolkata city hotel hours before the IPL's opening ceremony said it all. All the board members came and left one after the other, but Shah sat at one of the round-table with a few of his close associates for a couple of hours - discussing all good things surrounding the game. All those untold stories about Indian cricket were a part of the package that made his presence even more powerful.

That also means Shah didn't run BCCI autocratically. It was quite democratic and the members vouch for it. Be it picking the new office-bearers before leaving for ICC, Jay bhai has always done the due deligence to consult key members before taking the final call. If there are doubts over the functioning of BCCI, calls could be made to cross-check facts. Shah makes it very clear that there is no hanky-panky happening here.

Be it handling the anti-Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma rants and handling their retirement issues, there is clarity in Indian cricket. And it is Shah who is behind this clarity - like a big match player who knows his job pretty well.

Shah's leadership has brought a sense of stability and vision to world cricket. His tenure as BCCI secretary was marked by financial growth, successful ICC events, and India's dominance in white-ball cricket.

Now, as ICC's independent chairman, he's handling global cricket affairs with the same strategic clarity, ensuring that the sport remains commercially strong and competitively balanced. His ability to navigate complex cricketing politics while keeping the game's interests at heart is why many believe cricket is in safe hands. Indeed it is!