New Zealand's Greg Barkley was unanimously elected as the chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) for a second term on Saturday. Apart from Barkley, BCCI (Cricket Board of India) secretary Jay Shah was elected to head the ICC's powerful finance and commercial affairs committee at the board meeting. Barkley was elected unopposed which means he also had the support of the BCCI (Cricket Board of India) in the 17-member board.

Jai Shah has been entrusted with the responsibility of chairing the most important committee of the ICC. This committee takes all the major financial policy decisions which are then approved by the ICC Board. An ICC source told PTI on condition of anonymity that every member has accepted Jay Shah as the head of the finance and commercial affairs committee. Apart from the ICC chairman, it is an equally powerful sub-committee.

The finance and commercial affairs committee is always headed by an ICC board member and Shah's election makes it clear that he will represent the BCCI on the ICC board. The work of this committee includes sharing of revenue among the member countries. The post of the head of this committee used to belong to India during N Srinivasan's era, but the BCCI's power was greatly reduced during Shashank Manohar's tenure as ICC chairman. Rather, there was a time during the tenure of the Committee of Administrators when the BCCI had no representation in the Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee.

Former BCCI President Sourav Ganguly was a member of this committee till last year. The ICC source said that India is the commercial hub of global cricket and more than 70 percent of the sponsorships come from the region. Therefore it is necessary that the Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee of the ICC should always be chaired by the BCCI. Former India captain Ganguly, who ended his term as BCCI president last month, will continue to head the ICC's Cricket Committee.