In his first couple of months helming cricket’s top role, International Cricket Council chair Jay Shah has hit the ground running and his top priority is seemingly focused on the Olympics.

Last month in Brisbane, in the northeast of Australia, Shah met with 2032 Olympic organizing committee chief Cindy Hook and Cricket Australia boss Nick Hockley.

Having successful been included to the Los Angeles Games, ending a 128-year Olympic drought, cricket hopes to be part of the Brisbane programme.

This week, Shah and ICC chief Geoff Allardice met with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach and other senior officials in Lausanne, Switzerland.

According to the ICC, the meeting focused on “key areas of collaboration between the ICC and the IOC in the build-up to the LA 2028 Olympic Games”.

“The inclusion of cricket in the Olympic Games represents a watershed moment for our sport and a real opportunity for transformative growth for 2028 and beyond,” Shah said in a press release.

“We discussed a range of critical issues and continued to build relationships with our friends across the Olympic movement. We look forward to the next three and half years working in collaboration with the IOC and LA 2028.”

The Olympics loom as cricket’s signature event of Shah’s tenure. How cricket fares on the global stage, its wider impacts and whether the sport becomes a permanent part of the programme will shape his legacy.

Shah, the most powerful administrator in cricket, is keen on trumpeting the big-ticket items. In a notable contrast to the quiet reign of predecessor Greg Barclay, a pragmatic New Zealander who flew under the radar, Shah relishes being front and center.

This shouldn’t be a revelation considering Shah, as then Indian cricket supremo, attempted to hog the attention in the aftermath of India’s T20 World Cup triumph.

Shah’s visits to Brisbane and Lausanne have been splashed around social media channels as Shah makes his first steps in shaking up an ICC board that has long been derided as toothless.

Anticipation is already building for cricket’s long-awaited Olympic return, with several superstar cricketers already dreaming of competing in LA.

But there are still several major issues to work out with the men’s and women’s cricket competitions. Venues have yet to be determined, with matches possibly extending beyond Los Angeles and locations as varied as the Oakland Coliseum and New York have been touted.

As I reported last year, some power brokers have championed for T20 qualification tournaments – not rankings – to determine which countries make the cut for Los Angeles 2028.

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A qualification format has yet to be officially locked in, but it’s been mooted that Olympic spots would be allocated to the top six in the ICC’s men’s and women’s T20 rankings at a cut-off date. The U.S. as host nation are likely to get an automatic slot although possibly in just one gender.

Shah, undoubtedly, will be on top of these issues which will be officially revealed in due course, likely this year, and splashed around on his social media feed.