Board of Control for Cricket in India President Mithun Manhas has expressed gratitude to former secretary and current ICC chairman Jay Shah for growing cricket in Jammu and Kashmir, which culminated in the team winning their maiden Ranji Trophy title by defeating Karnataka in the finals of the 2025-26 season.
Manhas, who has also served as the director of cricket at the Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA), stated that Jay Shah was one of the few who looked after J&K, improving the conditions and upgrading the cricketing infrastructure in the state, the results of which are clear, as the Paras Dogra-led side not only played their first-ever final but also won it 67 years after their first season.
“It has been an amazing journey, starting in June 2021. I want to specially thank the BCCI back then and especially Jay (Shah) bhai. He was the first secretary (in decades) who came to Jammu and saw our condition, and there was no looking back,” Manhas was quoted as saying after the win.
Manhas also praised J&K skipper Paras Dogra and head coach Ajay Sharma for bringing decades of experience to a team where cricket was viewed as a participation sport rather than a winning one. The BCCI President believes that having seniors like Paras and Ajay in the dressing room boosted confidence, ultimately contributing to a historic victory.
I am a person of process and believe you need to have seniors around. With Paras coming, we got this stability and calmness, and with Ajay bhai, he has the experience of playing five finals. The kind of batting he used to do, that has helped the boys grow. The best part that has happened is they have started believing in themselves.
“This win is dedicated to all of the people back home and all ex-cricketers back home. All the other teams, like Uttarakhand, played exceedingly well, and they have also started believing. It is only a matter of time before the results will follow,” Manhas concluded.
Notably, Jammu and Kashmir were the eighteenth team in history to win the Ranji Trophy. Mumbai, with 42 titles, leads the red-ball tournament, while Karnataka, the team J&K defeated in the finals, is still the second-most successful, with eight trophies.
