Melbourne: New Zealand’s Greg Barclay was unanimously elected as the chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) for a second term on Saturday. In the board meeting, apart from Barkley, BCCI secretary Jay Shah was elected to head the ICC’s powerful finance and commercial affairs committee. Barclay’s term will be for two years. Barkley was elected unopposed after Zimbabwe’s Tawengwa Mukuhlani withdrew. The ICC Board confirmed Barkley’s full support.
Barclay said on his reappointment, “It is an honor to be re-elected chairman of the International Cricket Council and I would like to thank my fellow ICC directors for their support.” Barkley was made the ICC chairman in November 2020. He was previously the Chamberman of New Zealand Cricket and the Director of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in 2015.
He was elected unopposed which means he also had the support of the BCCI in the 17-member board. Shah has been entrusted with the responsibility of chairing the most important committee of the ICC. This committee makes all major financial policy decisions after which the ICC Board approves them.
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An ICC source told PTI on condition of anonymity, “Each member has accepted Jay Shah as the head of the Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee. Apart from the ICC chairman, it is an equally powerful sub-committee. ,
Jay Shah to head Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee of ICC
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The finance and commercial affairs committee is always headed by an ICC board member and Shah’s election makes it clear that he will represent the BCCI on the ICC board. The work of this committee involves sharing of revenue among the member countries. The post of the head of this committee used to belong to India during N Srinivasan’s era, but the BCCI’s power was greatly reduced during Shashank Manohar’s tenure as ICC chairman. Rather, there were times during the tenure of the Committee of Administrators when the BCCI had no representation in the Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee.
Former BCCI President Sourav Ganguly was a member of this committee till last year. An ICC source said, “India is the commercial center of global cricket and more than 70 per cent of sponsorships come from the region. It is therefore necessary that the Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee of the ICC should always be chaired by the BCCI. Former India captain Ganguly, who ended his term as BCCI president last month, will continue to head the ICC’s cricket committee. (agency)