After Jay Shah, Indian cricket board head got elected as the International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman late last year, cricket’s global administrative head may get another Indian in a top spot, if media reports are to be believed

JioStar CEO of Sports and Live Experiences, Sanjog Gupta, according to a report in the UK’s The Guardian newspaper, is a front-runner to become the new CEO of ICC that could just push India’s heft in the cricket world to the stratosphere.

“The ICC is looking to fill the role with Geoff Allardice, the incumbent, serving a notice period that runs until the body’s AGM in July. Three sources have told the Guardian that Gupta is favourite to succeed the Australian, moving across from the broadcast company that holds the ICC’s $3bn rights deal for global events,” The Guardian report stated. (https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/may/12/broadcast-mogul-sanjog-gupta-increase-india-icc-cricket-jiostar)

The report went on to add that the next ICC CEO will have some challenging tasks on his hand, beginning with possible fee re-negotiations that JioStar (formerly Disney Star) agreed to pay for ICC media rights if India and Pakistan stop playing each other at ICC events following war-like situation that existed between the neighbours till two days back.

India-Pakistan matches have always been blockbuster events that get host media rights holders mind-boggling eyeballs — and incremental ad revenue — not to mention an uptick in ticket sales at respective venues.

Apart from this ticklish issue, the next ICC CEO would also have to see through cricket’s debut at the next Olympics and a proposed overhaul of the World Test Championship.

Indianbroadcastingworld.com couldn’t independently check out this possible development involving Gupta as being the front-runner for ICC CEO’s post. Both JioStar and ICC had not responded to The Guardian’s request for comments.

Whether he gets the post at ICC or not, at JioStar Gupta has a task at hand presently as IPL is set to resume from May 17 after a break in the face of India-Pakistan hostilities.

Tender for Sports Presentation Management Services: Meanwhile, the International Cricket Council yesterday issued an Invitation to Tender (ITT) for Sports Presentation Management Services for the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 to be hosted by India and the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 to be hosted by India and Sri Lanka.

The ICC is looking for partner(s) who will be responsible for producing and providing innovative creative proposals, high-quality integrated programmes, management and implementation for the two tournaments.

The request-for-proposal, according to an ICC statement, is intended to attract responses from companies with extensive experience in providing similar services, and with the ability to deliver to a world-class standard.