New Delhi: The International Cricket Council (ICC) is facing criticism over a recent 45-second video celebrating South Africa’s World Test Championship (WTC) final victory over Australia at Lord’s for prominently featuring ICC chairman Jay Shah multiple times.
The video, shared on ICC’s official X account, was intended to mark South Africa’s historic victory. However, the montage included Jay Shah in at least 11 different frames, drawing widespread reactions across social media.
The clip opens with a wide-angle view of the Lord’s balcony, with Shah appearing as early as the second cut. Critics argued the video placed disproportionate focus on the ICC chairman rather than the players or key moments of the match.
“Hey @grok, how many runs and wickets did Jay Shah get in the WTC?” a journalist commented while sharing the video. Another wrote, “Didn’t realise the ICC final was Jay Shah vs Jay Shah. This video montage looks like it’s been compiled by the Jay Shah appreciation society (which has one member).”
Fans also chimed in. “Who said India didn’t play the final?” one user joked, while another remarked, “Blink and you’ll miss Pat Cummins. Jay Shah, on the other hand…” Cartoonist Satish Acharya, known for the sharp political commentary, wrote, “It’s funny how the ICC added more glimpses of Jay Shah than of the WTC-winning captain, Temba Bavuma.”
Following the backlash, the ICC reportedly deleted the original post and re-uploaded the same video — a move seen by many as an attempt to minimise visible negative comments.
“After the backslash against Jay Shah, the ICC deleted the previous tweet to get rid of negative tweets/comments against him and reshared the exact same video again,” wrote Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of the fact-checking website AltNews, on X.
Meanwhile, South Africa defeated Australia in the WTC final to break their long-standing “chokers” tag. Led by Temba Bavuma, the team clinched their first ICC title in over two decades, marking a milestone moment in the nation’s cricketing history.
hey @grok how many runs and wickets did Jay Shah get in the WTC? https://t.co/K2idUQ1aHu
— Andrew Fidel Fernando (@afidelf) June 16, 2025
Did you see the ICC video??
— Paul Dennett (@PaulDennett_) June 16, 2025
Meant to be celebrating the WTC final - but instead has 11 shots of Jay Shah in it.
It’s so weird! It’s hilarious! #WTC2025 pic.twitter.com/W0baOiZXdJ
It's funny how ICC added more glimpses of Jay Shah than the WTC winning skipper Bavuma in this video! 🥴https://t.co/aY4tHmffqN
— Satish Acharya (@satishacharya) June 17, 2025
After the backslash against Jay Shah, @ICC deleted the previous tweet to get rid of negative tweets/comments against him and reshared the exact same video again. 🤡 https://t.co/PQAd7fLdEd
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) June 17, 2025
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Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).