MUMBAI: Praising BCCI secretary general Jay Shah, who was on Tuesday elected unopposed as the next president of the International Cricket Council, cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar told TOI that it would not be a surprise if the global sport flourishes further during his tenure as ICC president.
At 35, he is the youngest person ever to hold this prestigious position.
Regarding Shah's appointment as ICC chief, succeeding Greg Barclay, Gavaskar told the paper, “It's great news. Every ICC president of Indian origin has taken cricket forward and generated additional revenue for the ICC and other member countries. If we put political bias aside, everyone will agree that Jay Shah has taken a giant step for Indian cricket.” Listing Shah's achievements as BCCI Secretary General since 2019, he said, “Shah was primarily instrumental in launching the Women's Premier League (WPL), bringing Indian women's international cricketers' remuneration on par with that of the Indian men's team, increasing pensions for retired cricketers, introducing incentives for playing Test matches and white-ball internationals, and introducing prize money for domestic tournaments. The state-of-the-art National Cricket Academy (NCA, Bangalore) was also created during his tenure.”
“Given all this, it will not be surprising if world tennis flourishes during my term as ICC President,” Gavaskar concluded.
