The Wellington businessman was today confirmed as the International Cricket Council's (ICC) vice-president and will ascend to the presidency when India's Sharad Pawar steps aside in 2012.
It represents a heady elevation for Isaac, the New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chairman since 2008, who will vacate that position on August 27 as his new role demands he take a global view of the game.
Isaac emerged as a candidate for the vice-presidency only last month after NZC and Cricket Australia's original nominee, former Australian prime minister John Howard, was rejected for still unexplained reasons by the ICC board.
Once former NZC chairman Sir John Anderson, who Howard beat for the original nomination, declared no interest in the still vacant position, Isaac was shoulder-tapped to allow his name to go forward as an alternative candidate.
His nomination was accepted by the ICC board in Dubai today, leaving Isaac (58) to contemplate how quickly circumstances can change.
"I'm incredibly excited. For me, it has all happened in a relatively short period of time. It was just three weeks ago that Sir John Anderson told me he wasn't interested [in the vice-presidency] and he thought I should throw my hat in the ring," Isaac said.
"A number of countries had in the past encouraged me to be available but I had chosen not to be because I have a lot of time and respect for Sir John. I had no expectations until just recently and it has all happened very quickly."
An accountant by profession, with 35 years working for KPMG, the last 10 of them as chairman before retiring in 2006, Isaac has a full understanding of what awaits him around the ICC board table after spending the past two years as New Zealand's representative on the sport's world governing body.
The manner of Howard's blunt rebuff by the ICC was the latest illustration of the changed dynamics within the ICC, where the powerbase is now firmly in the hands of the subcontinental bloc headed by India, the financial nerve centre of the global game.
Isaac is more than comfortable with that, pointing out that for many years Australia, England and, for a period of time South Africa, had a power of veto.
"The ICC never agreed on anything unless those three countries agreed.
"At the moment the realities are that India has a lot of commercial power in the sense of the value of cricket that commercial partners such as broadcasters and sponsors see.
"But they [India] need the game to prosper globally, they need people to play against and, inevitably, they work in with us.
" I cannot think of any example in the two years that I have been on the board where they have in any way misused that power."
Isaac is adamant that nationalistic tendencies have no place around the ICC board table.
"The board has an obligation to act in the best interests of world cricket. That's what David Morgan, the recently retired president, was at pains to emphasise and that's certainly a view I agree with quite strongly."
He believes the most pressing issue confronting the ICC is to complete a futures tours programme for 2013-2020.
The present programme expires in 2012 and a replacement is needed to accommodate ICC events such as the World Cup, tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20 matches.
"Once that is completed, the ICC can then sell the rights to its events which is important money that flows down to all the member countries."
He said it meant that individual member nations were then in a position to sell those matches to broadcasters and other commercial partners.
"It means they can plan their income and activities for the next eight years, which helps them significantly."
