Happy Birthday Jay Shah: The man who reshaped modern Indian cricket

ICC Chairman Jay Shah's legacy stands tall: from pay parity to the WPL, a look at the policies redefining the game

by e4m Staff
Published: Sep 22, 2026 2:47 PM | 2 min read

ICC Chairman Jay Shah celebrates his birthday, recognized for his impactful leadership in cricket as both BCCI Secretary and ICC Chairman.
He introduced the Pay Parity Policy, ensuring equal match fees for Indian women cricketers, marking a significant advancement in gender equity in sports.
Shah played a key role in launching the Women's Premier League, which has become the largest women's cricket league globally, attracting substantial investment and viewership.
His initiatives also include the Test Cricket Incentive Scheme to boost interest in Test matches, increased domestic player salaries, and successful management of the IPL during the pandemic.

Today, the cricketing world joins in wishing ICC Chairman Jay Shah a very happy birthday. Few administrators in recent memory have left as decisive an imprint on the sport as Shah has in his years at the helm, first as BCCI Secretary and now as the youngest-ever Chairman of the International Cricket Council.

Shah's tenure will long be remembered for the introduction of the Pay Parity Policy, a landmark decision that ensured India's women cricketers would earn the same match fees as their male counterparts. It was a first in Indian sport, and a move that signalled a genuine structural shift rather than a symbolic gesture. It was a policy that put Indian cricket ahead of the curve on gender equity in global sport.

Just as transformative was his role in launching the Women's Premier League. What had long been talked about but never realised finally took shape under his stewardship, growing rapidly into the world's biggest women's cricket league, drawing record broadcast deals, franchise investment, and viewership that proved, beyond doubt, the commercial and sporting viability of the women's game in India.

Shah also recognised that the shorter formats could not be allowed to overshadow the longest one. His Test Cricket Incentive Scheme addressed this head-on, significantly increasing match fees for players featuring in India's Test season and reviving competitive appetite for the format at a time when its future was being widely debated. It was a rare example of an administrator backing conviction with numbers.

Beyond these three pillars, his tenure at the BCCI saw a steep rise in domestic player salaries and prize money, the creation of the Narendra Modi Stadium, and the successful, bio-secure staging of the IPL through the pandemic. As President of the Asian Cricket Council, he also revived the Asia Cup as a commercially robust, multi-venue tournament and widened the game's footprint across the continent.

Since taking over as ICC Chairman in December 2024, Shah has carried that same instinct for execution onto the global stage: steering the sport's return to the Olympics from Los Angeles 2028, and continuing to push for technology integration and calendar reform across international cricket.

As the industry marks his birthday, it is worth pausing on what sets Shah apart: a willingness to convert intent into policy, and policy into measurable change for the athletes and administrators who make up the sport. From the boardroom to the boundary line, his decisions have widened opportunity, rewarded merit, and pushed Indian cricket (and now world cricket) into a more inclusive, forward-looking era.

Many happy returns, Chairman Jay Shah.