Happy birthday Zee Zaidi and an innings built beyond the boundary

As he turns a year older, a look at the Cricexec founder who saw that some of cricket’s most consequential stories were unfolding far beyond the boundary

by e4m Staff
Published: Aug 27, 2026 11:56 AM | 3 min read

Zee Zaidi, Founder and Publisher of Cricexec, has created a specialized platform focusing on the business and governance aspects of cricket, filling an editorial gap in the sport's media landscape.
Before launching Cricexec in 2019, Zaidi had a background in sports business, including a partnership at ZMZ Agency and founding Dawn Equity, which informed his approach to cricket media.
Cricexec targets a niche audience of industry professionals, including administrators, league executives, and sponsors, emphasizing relevance over scale in its coverage.
The platform has expanded its offerings to include interviews, podcasts, and initiatives like the Women’s Power 50, recognizing influential women in cricket, while identifying India as a key market for cricket's economic growth.

Cricket’s most visible stories are usually written in runs, wickets and trophies. Zee Zaidi chose to look elsewhere—at the executives, governing bodies, investors, sponsors and commercial decisions shaping the sport away from the field.

As Zaidi turns a year older, his journey stands out for identifying an editorial gap and patiently building a specialised platform around it. As Founder and Publisher of Cricexec, he has helped bring the business and governance of cricket into sharper focus for an international audience of industry professionals.

His route to cricket media was neither obvious nor conventional. Before launching Cricexec, Zaidi worked in the wider sports business. From 2006 to 2011, he was a partner at ZMZ Agency, which represented professional football players and coaches across the United States and Europe. In 2011, he founded Dawn Equity, continuing an entrepreneurial career spanning sport, media and enterprise.

That experience would eventually inform Cricexec, launched in 2019 while Zaidi was based in New York. He had observed an abundance of cricket coverage built around matches, players and fans, but comparatively little journalism created specifically for those running the sport. He envisioned a trade publication in the mould of specialist titles such as Billboard or The Hollywood Reporter—focused on economics, governance, rights, sponsorship and decision-making.

Cricexec began modestly, with a website, social channels and largely press-release-led coverage. Its growth did not come from chasing the broadest possible audience. Instead, the publication built relevance through consistency and a clearly defined readership comprising administrators, league executives, franchise owners, agents, sponsors and technology providers across cricket markets.

That discipline remains central to Zaidi’s publishing philosophy. In an interview with exchange4media, he summed it up succinctly: “You are not chasing scale, you are chasing relevance.” It is a principle that captures both the challenge and the strength of niche media. Cricexec may not be designed for millions of casual fans, but it has sought to become useful to the smaller community making consequential decisions about cricket’s future.

The platform’s lens is global, with readers across India, England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Ireland, the United States and emerging cricket territories. Yet Zaidi sees India as cricket’s economic centre and its biggest growth opportunity, driven by the expanding influence of the IPL and rising investment across media, technology and sponsorship.

Cricexec has also widened the conversation through interviews, podcasts, guest perspectives, jobs coverage and initiatives such as its Women’s Power 50, which recognises women shaping cricket through leadership, ownership, administration and broadcasting.

Zaidi’s story is ultimately one of patient category-building. He recognised that cricket’s commercial rise required a publication devoted to explaining it and stayed focused long enough to make that idea matter.

On his birthday, Zaidi celebrates not merely another year, but a journey that has helped give cricket’s off-field decision-makers a dedicated platform and its business story a clearer, more global voice.