Jay Shah — Cricket’s Game-Changer

AT HIS PERCH in BCCI office at the 1.32 lakh capacity Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad — the world’s largest — a discussion with Jay Shah stands out for his clarity of mind. And his steadfast belief that cricket administration must focus its energies only on infrastructure development and player facilities. Everything else is a by-product, he emphasises — not once, not twice, but multiple times in the conversation.

BCCI’s financial heft, he reiterates, is another outcome. Especially, the record ₹48,390.5 crore bid for 5-year IPL media rights for the 2023-2027 seasons which turned a game-changer after Shah decided to split TV and digital bids upon his belief that the rapidly crashing data rates in the country called for independent bids for digital rights, separate from TV rights.

The 36-year old Shah, whose 5-year tenure as BCCI secretary had high points such as India becoming No.1 in all 3 formats of cricket, introduction of Women’s IPL, pay parity and hosting IPL 2020 during Covid in a bio-bubble involving over 30,000 tests without a single positive case, is set to take charge as chairman of the world’s apex cricket organisation — the International Cricket Council — on December 1, 2024. His top agenda at ICC: To globalise cricket!

At BCCI, Shah’s unfinished agenda of creating world-class stadiums such as the Narendra Modi Stadium (whose construction in record time of two and a half years he oversaw personally) likely to be carried forward by his successor. As also his dream to build fully connected smart stadiums in the country. What is a smart stadium? Read all about that in Ashutosh Kumar’s cover story on how Jay Shah led BCCI to the pinnacle of world cricket with focus on the basics and some ingenious strategies.

Next, Ahmedabad’s Torrent Group led by brothers Samir and Sudhir Mehta is seeing its biggest overhaul in six and a half decades of existence. From a near-death experience when 90% of its revenues evaporated overnight with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Mehta brothers have come a long way: Rapidfire organic and inorganic growth makes Torrent one of India’s largest in private power distribution; 6 years since entering the sector it’s among the top 5 natural gas distributors with additional rights for city gas distribution in 17 cities; fifth-largest in pharma by revenue and third by market cap. It has lined up adjacencies in hospitals and diagnostics, hybrid renewables, pumped hydro storage (PHS) and green hydrogen with over ₹1 lakh crore capex. Now ranked 15th in Fortune India’s Rich List, up from 23rd in the 2023 ranking, Mehta brothers’ fortune has swelled with the growth of businesses. Read P.B. Jayakumar’s story on The New Torrent.

This month’s special issue is Fortune India’s annual Best B-Schools study — the most authentic ranking of the country’s business schools, including the most unique ‘Distance To Frontier’ rating that captures how far any B-school is from the leader.

Built from scratch with the most modern methodology, the ranking rates every B-school on five parameters. Read that package, especially the race among the country’s elite schools to be the world’s best with global accreditations. And how a clause in Centre’s NIRF rankings of B-schools has an unintended consequence: Faculty shortage.