Michael Vaughan breaks silence on Jay Shah's appointment as the ICC Chairman

Former England captain Michael Vaughan has reacted to BCCI secretary Jay Shah's appointment as the chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC). Last month, Shah was named the new chairman of the world’s governing council for cricket.

The 35-year-old Asian Cricket Council (ACC) president will become the youngest ever ICC chairman when he replaces the ongoing New Zealander Greg Barclay on 1 December 2024.

Michael Vaughan lauds Jay Shah’s appointment as ICC Chairman

Reacting to the BCCI secretary’s appointment as the ICC chairman, Michael Vaughan, though he couldn’t directly connect to Shah, sent his message during his latest appearance at Club Prairie Fire’s podcast.

The cricket expert emphasized the impact Shah could have on the future of Test cricket. Michael Vaughan suggested that Shah's leadership could play a crucial role in ensuring Test cricket remains relevant and competitive in the modern era of the game, which is dominated by white-ball cricket.

Former England has further advocated for increased promotion and marketing of Test cricket to prevent it from becoming secondary to the more commercially driven formats like T20 and franchise leagues.

He also expressed concerns that if Test cricket is not actively promoted and made a priority, it risks being overshadowed by other formats, especially franchise leagues.

He’s a mover and shaker: Vaughan on BCCI secretary

Michael Vaughan said on Club Prairie Fire’s YouTube channel: “Yeah, that’s a big appointment. I mean, I don’t have his number, but I’m sure someone can send me his email. He’s a mover and shaker; he gets things done. So, I hope that he will have an eye to making sure that Test cricket can be a product that we all love for a lot longer than obviously the next few years, and to do that, I just think we need more and more competitive series.

We need it spoken about and marketed a lot more than we see at the minute. I don’t want it to become an afterthought, and I feel at the minute it’s like an afterthought. Oh, it’s just a Test cricket. He will carry on; let's just leave it. If you are just leaving anything these days, things overtake it—the franchise leagues and white-ball cricket. In terms of administrators again, they will deny and publicly say Test cricket is pinnacle and blah blah. They are doing nothing about it,” Michael Vaughan further said.

Meanwhile, Test cricket has been severely impacted by the growing trend of franchise leagues across the world. The whole cricket calendar is packed with franchise leagues and white-ball cricket, leaving the teams to play only two-match or three-match Test series these days.

Only top teams like India, England, and Australia play four- or five-match Test series. At the moment, almost every Test-playing nation is involved in the red-ball action.

However, the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) made Test cricket a bit more interesting for the fans, but still, it needs a lot of effort to keep interest among the fans for the traditional format of the game.