cricexec was the subject of a front-page feature in exchange4media (e4m), India’s most established publication covering the media, marketing and advertising industries. The piece, written by Senior Editor Ruhail Amin and published on April 6, examines cricexec’s editorial model, its positioning within the global cricket economy and the broader shift in how the business of cricket is covered and understood.
Founded in 2000, exchange4media serves as a key trade resource for marketing, advertising and media professionals across India and has built a readership of over 25,000 industry leaders. Being recognised by a publication of that stature — one that covers the mechanics of media businesses rather than just the content they produce — represents a significant milestone for cricexec and for the cricket trade media category more broadly.
The feature, structured as an extended interview with cricexec founder and publisher Zee Zaidi, traces the origins of the platform back to a straightforward observation about how cricket was being covered. “There was an abundance of fan-driven content — matches, players, commentary, all of that,” Zaidi told e4m. “I didn’t see a platform that was fully dedicated to the business and governance of cricket, something built specifically for industry stakeholders.”
Zaidi drew a parallel to established trade models in other entertainment verticals. “I had a strong interest in trade publications, models like Hollywood Reporter or Billboard, which serve industry audiences,” he said. “I wanted something similar for cricket.”
The conversation explores cricexec’s evolution from a modest website to a platform whose readership now includes senior decision-makers across every major cricket market. Zaidi described the editorial philosophy that has guided that growth: “A trade publication forces discipline. You are not chasing scale, you are chasing relevance.” The core audience, he explained, is not the millions of cricket fans but the tens of thousands of professionals who operate within the cricket economy globally — league executives, board officials, franchise owners, agents, sponsors and technology providers.
That discipline extends to cricexec’s commercial decisions. Zaidi discussed the platform’s deliberate choice to decline advertising revenue from betting companies, even during its early stages when those were among the most available sponsors in sports media. “In a niche publication, trust is everything,” he said. “Once that is compromised, it’s very hard to recover.”
A substantial portion of the feature centres on India’s role in the global cricket economy. Zaidi described India as not only the sport’s current economic centre but the market with the most room for continued expansion. “In markets like England or Australia, the ecosystem is relatively mature. In India, it’s still expanding,” he said, pointing to the constant flow of new entrants across media, technology, sponsorship and services.
On the IPL‘s trajectory, Zaidi was unequivocal. “I still believe we are early in the journey,” he told e4m, noting that the league is less than two decades old yet already competing with century-old global sports properties on key commercial metrics. He pointed to the IPL’s opening weekend reaching over 500 million viewers as evidence of a narrative shift in how cricket is covered. “Those are not just sports numbers — they’re business and media numbers.”
The exchange4media feature sits alongside cricexec’s continued expansion of its editorial footprint, live event coverage and investigative reporting on structural issues facing the global cricket industry. The recognition from a publication that has spent over two decades covering how media businesses are built and sustained is a validation of the category cricexec set out to create: dedicated, rigorous trade coverage for the people shaping cricket’s commercial future.
The full feature can be read here.
