Vikrant Gupta said on July 21 that there is a power search at the BCCI since Jay Shah moved to the ICC, and that some people are already trying to take advantage of the vacuum he left behind.
Gupta made the remarks on his verified Sports Tak YouTube channel during Vikrant Unfiltered Episode 52, which had crossed 111,000 views within 24 hours of airing on July 21, 2026. No official BCCI statement has been made in response at the time of publication.
“I think since Jay Shah went to ICC, now for everything you would go and ask him. I felt there is a power search: who is it? Who is at the top of that tree now? And maybe that vacuum, I felt that some people want to take advantage of it.”
Vikrant Gupta, Vikrant Unfiltered EP 52, Sports Tak, July 21, 2026
Gupta is Senior Managing Editor at Sports Tak and Aaj Tak, one of India’s largest sports media platforms. His Vikrant Unfiltered series is one of the most closely watched cricket commentary shows in the country and has a track record of surfacing dressing room developments before they become public knowledge. The day before, his analysis had already tied India’s bowling crisis to dressing room friction. Episode 52 pushed the inquiry a step further, naming the administration itself as part of the problem.
Jay Shah served as BCCI Honorary Secretary from 2019 until November 30, 2024. He was elected unopposed as ICC Independent Chairman on August 27, 2024 and took charge on December 1, the same year, becoming the youngest ICC chairman in history.
The Secretary position is more consequential than its title suggests. A 2022 BCCI constitutional amendment gave the Secretary authority over all cricketing and non-cricketing matters, with the CEO working under the supervision of that office. Jay Shah held this role for five years, during which he shaped decisions ranging from coaching appointments to India’s positioning in ICC negotiations.
Devajit Saikia was appointed acting Secretary on December 10, 2024, and elected to the full role unopposed on January 12, 2025. He was re-elected unopposed at the BCCI’s 94th AGM in September 2025. His willingness to speak on team matters publicly was visible when he recently addressed Rohit Sharma’s future, but the question of his administrative authority compared to Jay Shah is exactly what Gupta’s observation puts on the table. Mithun Manhas was elected 37th BCCI President at the same AGM. The current officer-bearers are Manhas (President), Rajeev Shukla (Vice President), Saikia (Secretary), Prabhtej Singh Bhatia (Joint Secretary), and A. Raghuram Bhat (Treasurer).
The Tree Without Jay Shah
Insider Read:
The real vacuum at BCCI is not about who signs documents. It is about who has the authority to make a contested call stick.
Jay Shah made fast, centralized decisions because he carried political weight that went beyond cricket administration. When he told selectors to back a player, they backed them. When a head coach needed cover for a difficult call, that cover arrived quickly and firmly. That kind of authority does not transfer with a job title. It came from who he was, and nothing about Saikia or Manhas fills it the same way.
Without that central authority, BCCI governance moves into committee mode: slower, more open to factional pressure, more susceptible to the kind of opportunism Gupta is describing. The “tree” Gupta references is real. People in Indian cricket know who has actual power, and they adjust their behaviour accordingly.
This reaches the dressing room before it reaches the newspapers. When the man above the head coach does not have full authority, the coach loses his own certainty. Selectors second-guess calls they might have made cleanly before. Players pick up on that hesitation through small signals: delayed announcements, inconsistent messaging, decisions that feel provisional rather than final. The friction between management and players that has been discussed in this episode does not exist in isolation from what is unsettled at the top.
Sources:
