‘No country bigger than ICC’: Jay Shah on Pakistan, Bangladesh pull-out row before T20 World Cup

International Cricket Council chairman Jay Shah has broken his silence on the controversy that unfolded before the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, when Bangladesh national cricket team were removed from the tournament after refusing to travel to India. The decision had prompted Pakistan national cricket team to initially threaten a boycott.

Pakistan first said it would skip the 20-team tournament, alleging the ICC had treated Bangladesh unfairly. It later said it would participate but would not take the field against India national cricket team in the marquee group-stage clash in Colombo.

However, Pakistan reversed its stance days later after the ICC confirmed that no sanctions would be imposed on Bangladesh for missing the World Cup. Bangladesh was also awarded hosting rights for a future ICC event, most likely the next ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup.

Speaking days after the tournament concluded, Shah said the episode showed that no single country is bigger than the governing body.

“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 naming any country.

After Bangladesh opted not to travel, the ICC replaced them with Scotland national cricket team in Group C. The tournament — which saw India successfully defend their title — went on to break several global viewership records.

Shah said the event recorded 7.2 million concurrent viewers for the first time in its history and set new overall audience records. He also praised associate teams for their performances, highlighting results such as United States national cricket team pushing India, Netherlands national cricket team troubling Pakistan, Zimbabwe national cricket team defeating Australia national cricket team, and Nepal national cricket team giving England national cricket team a scare.

Shah’s message for India

Shah, who served as secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India from 2019 to 2024, also had a message for India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir and T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav, urging them to focus on long-term planning with the goal of winning a gold medal at the 2028 Summer Olympics.

“Slipping from the top to the bottom takes only months, while climbing from the bottom to the top takes years,” Shah said, encouraging the team to keep planning for the future and prepare for upcoming cycles, including 2030, 2031 and even the 2036 Summer Olympics.