JioStar | Pakistan

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s entertainment venture JioStar has terminated its broadcast deals in Bangladesh for the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament, saying its local partner defaulted on payments, according to a document seen by Reuters. Bangladesh in January banned IPL broadcasts after one of its teams, Kolkata Knight Riders, dropped Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman at the Indian cricket board’s instruction, just as tensions rose between the two countries following the killing of a Hindu man in Bangladesh. Though Bangladesh is reviewing the ban and had on Saturday said any further steps will depend on the opinion of its sports ministry, the termination by JioStar means there will be no local broadcaster for the IPL season, even if the country were to change its stance. “The agreement stands terminated with immediate effect,” JioStar said in a letter dated February 17 to Bangladesh broadcaster TSports, which had sublicensed the rights from JioStar for IPL seasons from 2023 to 2027. The ...

The International Cricket Council on Monday named Sanjog Gupta as its new chief executive officer, a senior official at India’s key broadcaster of the game. Gupta, the ICC’s seventh CEO, succeeds Geoff Allardice, who resigned from the post in January after four years in office. Gupta was broadcaster JioStar’s chief executive for sports and live experiences. ICC chairman Jay Shah said Gupta “brings extensive experience in sports strategy and commercialisation, which will be invaluable for the ICC”. The role attracted more than 2,500 applications from candidates across 25 countries, the ICC said. “These are exciting times for the sport as marquee events grow in stature, commercial avenues widen and opportunities such as the women’s game scale in popularity,” Gupta said in a statement. “Cricket’s inclusion in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games and the rapid acceleration of technology deployment/adoption could act as force-multipliers for the cricket movement around the world,” he said. According to the ICC’s web...