Indian influence at the top table of world cricket could be set to increase with Sanjog Gupta, the head of live sport at broadcast giants Jiostar, having emerged as the frontrunner to become the new chief executive of the International Cricket Council.
The ICC is currently looking to fill the role with Geoff Allardice, the incumbent, serving a notice period that runs until the body’s AGM in July. Three separate sources have told the Guardian that Gupta is favourite to succeed the Australian, moving across from the broadcast company that holds the ICC’s $3billion (£2.2bn) rights deal for global events.
If so, Gupta would become the first major appointment at the ICC since Jay Shah, the former secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, was made chair of the global governing body last December. Both men have worked closely together in the past, with Jiostar also the domestic broadcasters of the Indian Premier League.
The next chief executive of the ICC faces significant challenges, not least ongoing negotiations over the fee that Jiostar (formerly Disney Star) agreed to pay for global events. Should India and Pakistan stop playing each other at these, something that was floated in response to recent cross-border hostilities, the deal’s value would be affected further.
Then there is an overhaul of the World Test Championship. The existing structure is set to remain in place for the 2025-27 cycle but there is a growing push to recalibrate the competition in time for the start of the next future tours programme.
More broadly, on top of expanding international women’s cricket and overseeing the sport’s Olympic return in 2028, there is the task of navigating the international men’s game through a calendar increasingly swamped by franchise leagues. The IPL, for example, is looking to move from 74 games per year to 94 per year from 2028 onwards.
Notably, Gupta was among those spoken to by the World Cricketers’ Association (the global umbrella group of player unions) when producing a recent report that called for dedicated windows for international cricket. Tom Harrison, the former chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, was another to be spoken to and has been linked to the ICC vacancy previously. The ICC has declined to comment.
The Indian Premier League is set to resume on Saturday, with the 17 remaining games to be held across six venues. The T20 tournament – comfortably the richest event in cricket – was suspended last week amid the military hostilities between India and Pakistan.
It remains to be seen how many overseas players, including the 10 English players contracted to franchises, will be tempted back having left the region as tensions between the nuclear powers escalated. The matches are scheduled for Bengaluru, Jaipur, Lucknow, Mumbai and Ahmedabad – with Dharamsala notable by its absence after the last game before the hiatus was abandoned in dramatic fashion.
The destination of the knockout games and final have yet to be determined but the final has been rescheduled for 3 June.
