Mumbai, July 8 -- Sanjog Gupta, a leading sports broadcast executive from India, has been appointed CEO of the International Cricket Council (ICC) starting Monday. Gupta, who was CEO - Sports & Live Experiences at JioStar, replaces New Zealand's Geoff Allardice, who stepped down in January, a month after Jay Shah became ICC chairman. A global recruitment process was launched in March for the CEO, an ICC statement said. Over 2,500 applications were received from candidates across 25 countries. Twelve of them made the shortlist before Gupta made the cut. Coming from a broadcast network which holds the ICC media rights, Gupta is well-versed with the current broadcast landscape and the challenges ahead. "Sanjog brings extensive experience in sports strategy and commercialisation, which will be invaluable for the ICC," Shah said. Gupta 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. Cricket's inclusion in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games and the rapid acceleration of technology deployment/ adoption could act as force multipliers for cricket movement around the world." While ICC is currently well placed thanks to a $3 billion media rights contract (2024-27) with JioStar, the next round of rights renewal may not be straightforward with Disney Star and Viacom 18, previously competing entities, having merged. Gupta was at the centre during that process and was subsequently appointed CEO, JioStar Sports, in November 2024....