Cricket’s biggest story isn’t on the field, it’s the business behind it: Zee Zaidi

At a time when cricket coverage remains overwhelmingly skewed towards matches and players, Zee Zaidi, Founder and Publisher of cricexec, built Cricexec with a singular editorial intent: to decode the business of cricket for those who run it. 

From leagues and boards to sponsors, investors and operators, Cricexec has positioned itself as a niche trade platform within a rapidly expanding global cricket economy. 

In this conversation, Zaidi unpacks the origins of the platform, the realities of building a focused media business, and why India sits at the centre of cricket’s economic future.

Excerpts from the interview:

What was the sharp insight or gap you identified in cricket coverage that led to the creation of Cricexec?

The gap was very clear when I looked closely at how cricket was being covered. There was an abundance of fan-driven content, matches, players, commentary, all of that. Even when business or governance issues were covered, they were a very small slice of a much larger editorial mix.

I didn’t see a platform that was fully dedicated to the business and governance of cricket, something built specifically for industry stakeholders. That’s where the idea came from.

My background helped. I had worked across media, entertainment and technology, and I understood how platforms are built and scaled. I also had some exposure to the sports business through a football agency I was involved in earlier. But more importantly, I had a strong interest in trade publications, models like Hollywood Reporter or Billboard, which serve industry audiences.

I wanted something similar for cricket. A place that focuses on economics, decision-making, governance and industry trends, not just the sport on the field.

When you started, cricket was already commercialising rapidly. How much did timing play a role?

Timing was a big factor. When we started about six years ago, cricket was clearly moving from under-commercialisation to hyper-commercialisation.

The IPL had already been around for over a decade. Other leagues like the Big Bash and CPL were established, and new leagues were on the horizon. You could see the ecosystem expanding.

At that point, I felt there was going to be a need for deeper coverage of the business side. Not just who won a match, but how leagues were structured, how rights deals were evolving, how governance decisions were shaping the sport.

It was also partly personal. I wanted to read something like this myself. That instinct usually signals a broader demand.

Take us through the early building phase. How did you move from a basic platform to becoming credible within the cricket ecosystem?

We started very modestly. Just a website and some social channels. The content in the beginning was fairly basic, mostly press releases.

But what worked in our favour was consistency and clarity of focus. Slowly, people within the ecosystem started noticing us. Executives from leagues, boards, franchises began following, subscribing, engaging.

That was the inflection point. Because once the industry starts paying attention, you start understanding who your audience really is. And you can refine your coverage accordingly.

Over time, we’ve built a strong base among decision-makers. Today, a significant portion of our audience consists of people who are directly involved in running the sport.

Cricexec operates as a trade publication. How does that shape your editorial philosophy and product decisions?

A trade publication forces discipline. You are not chasing scale, you are chasing relevance.

Our core audience is not the millions of cricket fans. It’s the tens of thousands of professionals who operate within the cricket economy globally. That includes league executives, board officials, franchise owners, agents, sponsors, technology providers.

Because of that, every editorial decision has to serve that audience. Even if a story won’t generate massive traffic, if it’s valuable to the industry, we will prioritise it.

We’ve also tried to make Cricexec a platform for the ecosystem. We regularly publish guest columns from CEOs, league heads, player representatives and even players who are interested in business issues. That creates a dialogue within the industry, not just a one-way flow of information.

Your audience spans multiple geographies. How do you map its distribution, and where does India fit in strategically?

Our audience is spread across all major cricket markets. India, England and Australia are the largest segments. Beyond that, we have strong representation across South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Ireland and even associate markets like the Netherlands, Scotland, USA and Nepal.

What’s interesting is that in many of these countries, a large portion of the senior leadership in cricket organisations are part of our readership in some form.

India, however, is unique. It’s already the economic centre of the sport and is only becoming more dominant. But what stands out is the pace of expansion.

In markets like England or Australia, the ecosystem is relatively mature. In India, it’s still expanding. New entrants are constantly coming in, whether it’s in media, technology, sponsorship or services around cricket.

That creates a growing audience base for us. Strategically, India is a market where we see the most upside.

You’re witnessing the sport from a business lens. Are we at a point where cricket has firmly moved from back-page reporting to front-page economics?

Yes, and the primary reason is scale.

When you’re looking at numbers like 500 million plus viewership for an IPL opening weekend, it becomes impossible for mainstream media to ignore. Those are not just sports numbers, they’re business and media numbers.

There are also second-order effects. You’re seeing the impact on travel, hospitality, local economies. Cities become event destinations around matches.

Another factor, especially in India, is national pride. The IPL is now competing with global leagues like the NFL, NBA or Premier League on certain metrics. That shifts the narrative from sport to global business property.

All of this has pushed cricket, especially its business side, into more prominent editorial space.

You’ve tracked the IPL closely. How do you see its evolution from here, especially in the context of India’s economic growth?

I still believe we are early in the journey.

If you look at mature sports markets like the US, leagues there have had decades, even over a century, to evolve. The IPL is less than two decades old and is already competing with those leagues in terms of scale.

Now layer that with India’s economic trajectory. If the economy doubles over the next decade, the implications for cricket are massive. More disposable income, more advertisers, more sponsorship, more investment into the ecosystem.

The IPL is already one of the most powerful entertainment properties in the country. But if you project where it can go, especially in terms of fan monetisation, media rights and global positioning, the upside is still significant.

What are the structural challenges of running a focused, niche publication like Cricexec?

The biggest challenge is inherent to the model. You are targeting a limited audience by design.

We are not writing for millions of fans. Our core audience is a few tens of thousands of industry professionals globally. That limits scale, both in terms of reach and monetisation.

There is always a temptation to expand into more mainstream content to drive traffic. But that comes at the cost of relevance.

You have to stay disciplined and ensure that everything you do continues to serve your core audience. Because the moment you lose that, you lose your identity.

How does that discipline reflect in your business and monetisation choices?

It shows up very clearly.

For example, we’ve consciously avoided taking money from betting companies, even though they were among the earliest and most aggressive advertisers in sports media.

Financially, that’s a difficult decision, especially in the early stages of building a business. But we felt it didn’t align with the kind of audience we were building for or the credibility we wanted to maintain.

In a niche publication, trust is everything. Once that is compromised, it’s very hard to recover.

Finally, what keeps you invested in building Cricexec over the long term?

It’s the evolution of the cricket economy itself.

There’s constant innovation happening, whether it’s new leagues, new formats, technology integration, fan engagement models or investment structures.

You have entrepreneurs, investors and operators all trying to shape the future of the sport. Being able to track that, analyse it and contribute to that conversation is what makes this journey meaningful.

As long as we remain relevant to that ecosystem and continue to add value, we’ll keep building.