The International Cricket Council (ICC) have been criticised for their congratulatory post for chair Jay Shah.
In the Indian Express’ list of the most powerful Indians in 2026, the cricket administrator and son of India’s home minister Amit Shah, Jay was ranked 22nd, up from last year’s 24th. The ICC’s Twitter handle made a congratulatory post for their chair, writing:
“It is said that power and responsibility go hand-in-hand. This recognition is well-deserved and one that will definitely motivate our chairman Jay Shah to strive harder towards loftier goals for the sport.”
ICC’s message received flak from the international sporting media; CricViz’s Xavier Voigt-Hill was among many to criticise the post. “How is this real, come on lads,” he wrote. Sports broadcaster and journalist Nakul Pande wrote while quoting the post: “This is honestly pretty sickening.” Times Sports’ Sam Munnery found the message “weird”.
Other journalists posted criticism of the message as well.
Shah also received flak when he appeared 12 times in the BCCI’s 2026 T20 World Cup celebration montage. The video was just 39 seconds long and included the ICC chair on multiple occasions, celebrating with the Indian team and coaching staff. ICC were also called out when the chair appeared 11 times in a 45-second long video of the last day of the 2025 World Test Championship final.
He had also posed with Rohit Sharma and the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy during the captain's photoshoot. The former BCCI secretary was elected unopposed as the ICC chair in August 2024 and took over in December that year.
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