Former England captain Michael Vaughan He has reacted to the BCCI secretary Jay ShahShah was appointed as the president of the International Cricket Council (ICC) last month, and was named the new chairman of cricket’s world governing body.
The 35-year-old president of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) will become the youngest in history CPI president when he replaces incumbent New Zealander Greg Barclay on 1 December 2024.
Michael Vaughan hails appointment of Jay Shah as ICC president
Reacting to the appointment of BCCI Secretary as ICC President, Michael Vaughan, though he could not connect directly with Shah, sent his message during his latest appearance on the Prairie Fire Club podcast.
The cricket pundit highlighted 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.
The former England player has also advocated for greater promotion and commercialisation of Test cricket to prevent it taking a backseat to more commercial formats such as T20 and franchise leagues.
He also expressed concern that if Test cricket is not actively promoted and made a priority, it risks being overshadowed by other formats, especially franchise leagues.
Vaughan on BCCI secretary: ‘He is an influential person’
Michael Vaughan said on Club Prairie Fire’s YouTube channel: “Yeah, it’s a significant appointment. I mean, I don’t have his number, but I’m sure someone can send me his email. He’s a person who gets things done and who makes things happen. So, I hope he has his sights set on making sure that Test cricket can be a product that we all love for much longer than obviously the next few years, and to do that, I think we need more and more competitive series.
“We need it to be talked about and promoted a lot more than we see at the moment. I don’t want it to become an afterthought, and I feel like at the moment it is like an afterthought. Oh, it’s just Test cricket. It will go on; let’s leave it. If you just leave something these days, things overtake it – franchise leagues and white-ball cricket. In terms of administrators, again, they will deny and say publicly that Test cricket is the pinnacle and blah blah blah. They’re not doing anything about it,” Michael Vaughan continued.
Meanwhile, Test cricket has been severely affected by the growing trend of franchise leagues across the world. The entire cricket calendar is packed with franchise leagues and white-ball cricket, resulting in teams playing two- or three-match Test series at present.
Only the top teams, such as India, England and Australia, play four- or five-match series. Right now, almost all Test-playing nations are involved in red-ball action.
However, the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) has made Test cricket a bit more interesting for the fans, but still, it takes a lot of effort to maintain the interest among the fans in the traditional format of the game.