The International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman Jay Shah finally broke his silence on the drama that unfolded before the start of the T20 World Cup, when Bangladesh were removed from the tournament after refusing to travel to India, prompting Pakistan also to threaten to pull out. Pakistan first said it would boycott the 20-team tournament, alleging that the ICC was “unfair” to Bangladesh. Then it said it would participate but would not take the field against India in the marquee group-stage match in Colombo.
However, days later, Pakistan took a U-turn after the ICC confirmed that no sanctions would be imposed on Bangladesh for missing the T20 World Cup. Apart from that, Bangladesh was also handed the hosting rights for an ICC event, most likely the next U19 World Cup.
Days after the conclusion of the T20 World Cup, Jay Shah finally responded to the drama that occurred before the tournament, saying “no country” is bigger than the ICC and that he’s proud of how things eventually panned out.
“This ICC World Cup was very important because there was a lot of chatter before the start of the tournament about whether certain teams would participate and how the World Cup would go ahead. As ICC chairman, I can say that no team is bigger than the organisation and no single team makes an organisation. An organisation is a combination of all teams,” Shah said at an awards ceremony, without taking the name of any team.
After Bangladesh confirmed that they would not travel to India, the ICC showed them the door and replaced them with Scotland in Group C. The tournament, which saw the Men in Blue defend their title, broke viewership records left, right and centre.
“The World Cup has shattered all viewership records. For the first time in history, we recorded 7.2 million concurrent viewers. All records were broken in overall viewership. If you see, the USA gave India a hard time, the Netherlands troubled Pakistan, Zimbabwe beat Australia, and Nepal gave England a scare. I congratulate all the associate teams; they have done very well against the full members,” he added.
Shah’s message for India
Shah, who was the BCCI secretary from 2019 to 2024, also had a message for India head coach Gautam Gambhir and T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav: keep planning for the future and focus on the goal of winning the gold medal at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
“I have a message for Surya and Gautam Bhai: slipping from the top to the bottom takes only months, while climbing from the bottom to the top takes years. Keep working hard and keep winning awards. When I was on the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), I had planned till the 2028 Olympics. Now I am in the ICC, and others are in charge at the BCCI. All of you should prepare for 2030, 2031 and even 2036,” he said.
