31. Covering the Business of Cricket Globally with Zee Zaidi, Founder of CricExec
About the Farrell Sports Business Podcast
Interviews with news makers from sports business to talk leadership, entrepreneurship, industry news and their unique career paths. Hosted by Matt Farrell, President of Farrell Sports and former Golf Channel, USOPC, USA Swimming and Warner Bros.
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Summary
Episode 31 - In this episode of the Farrell Sports Business podcast, the host Matt Farrell talks with Zee Zaidi on the inception and growth of CricExec, a leading publication for the cricket business industry. He shares insights on the global perspective of cricket, its increasing popularity in the U.S., and the challenges and opportunities within the sport, particularly regarding youth engagement and women's cricket. Zee emphasizes the need for better infrastructure and support for cricket in America, while also highlighting the potential for growth in the coming years.
Farrell Sports Business (00:00)
Welcome to the Farrell Sports Business Podcast where we talk to leaders in the sports industry about the business side, entrepreneurship and leadership.
This week's episode is going to dive into the number two sport worldwide, and that's cricket. A few weeks ago, we talked with Liam Plunkett, who's starting his own cricket academy and the topic of cricket in the United States in particular and growth. I'm just very bullish on with it being on the program for LA 28 recently hosting the T 20 world cup here in the United States. think there's just a lot of reason for optimism on the growth of the sport.
And I'll tag on maybe at the end, a little special treat of me actually trying cricket at Six's Social in the Dallas area. No good is going to come out of posting that clip, but it was just a little bit fun.
This week's guest is the owner and founder of CricExec, the site That's really created a spot for the business side of cricket worldwide and in the United States.
this week's guest, the founder and owner of CricExec, Zee Zaidi
Farrell Sports Business (01:26)
Zee welcome to the podcast. So glad you're joining.
Zee (01:29)
Thank you, Matt. It is phenomenal to be here. feel very, little odd because the tables are turned right now. Usually I'm doing the podcast interviewing. So I'm excited to see how this one goes.
Farrell Sports Business (01:43)
Well, as we joked off camera, this is not 60 minutes today, but I will be the one asking the questions today. So you can just sit back and relax. So.
Zee (01:53)
Okay, all right, I'll see how that goes.
Farrell Sports Business (01:55)
Well, first of all, just to re reset, tell us about CricExec
Zee (02:02)
Sure, CricExec is the leading, I would argue only, publication, trade platform for the cricket industry worldwide. So we are a news property.
but also a general content property and more as well, like jobs and whatnot, all for the cricket industry. We cover from a content perspective, the people, we say the people, organizations and deals that drive the sport, right? So it's about the industry news, not so much the players or the matches and the results. It's literally, you know, who are the executives, right? Like what's going on with the governing boards? Who's moving where?
and what are the sponsorship endorsement deals that are getting done. we also have a job section on our site, which is extremely popular for people looking to find roles in the industry. And we're working on more. mean, we're developing it into a platform where the industry comes together and engages. That's QuickExec in a nutshell. It's been around for, would say, it's to put a date on it, like five years or so ago, I started it. Because, you
Matt, I saw a hole in the market, right? I saw that every industry needs a trade publication. And cricket was a big and booming industry. This was like 18, 19. And it didn't really have one. And so I said, let me start it. I mean, I hadn't really done that before. I wasn't a journalist. I could write. And I was a businessman and entrepreneur. And I said, let's go. And I love the sport. So let's go for it.
Here we are.
Farrell Sports Business (03:48)
Well, I want to get into your history in the sport here in a second, but you, you, you teed me up here on one, the entrepreneurial side of this of, you know, it started five ish years ago, but was it in the works for months or years before that? What made you make the leap to get it going?
Zee (04:07)
Sure. Well, so for me, wasn't that much of a leap in the sense that I have spent most of my career in as a sort of tech and media entrepreneur, right? You know, worked for like media companies and and a couple of startups and I done a few, right? And larger scale startups. This to me didn't seem like a big, intense startup that you have to raise a lot of capital for. It was content based.
It was more like combining a couple of passions of mine, right? Like I love sport. I love cricket in particular. All sports, but cricket was one of them where I saw this need. And I, you know, I love and I know a lot about business. And so I said, let me just combine them. So it didn't seem like that big a deal early on. So it wasn't that much of a leap. And it was, you know, I was doing other things at the same time. It was more of a passion project that I was like, let's see where it goes. Let's see if my
thesis about what's needed in the market is right. And also let's just have some fun, right? Because I, you know, you know, for those of us sports fans, for those of us sports fans, we just, you know, love being around it.
Farrell Sports Business (05:18)
So where does it originate for you personally, just the love of cricket?
Zee (05:23)
So I was born in Canada. I grew up in the Philippines actually. So I didn't grow up playing cricket. I grew up primarily a fan of the major North American sports. I came here for college and have been here since. But was going to Canada. Over summers I'd go to North America some of the time, right? Visiting relatives in Canada, the US. But my parents are originally from South Asia.
Right. My dad was born in India and then moved over to Pakistan. My mom was born in Pakistan, but everyone has a lot of family in Pakistan and India. But we spent a lot of summers in Pakistan growing up as well. And that's where, you know, this was, you know, pre social media, pre internet, pre whatever. That was my exposure to cricket early on. Playing a little bit, right. I was never good. Never played competitively, but watching it. And what was fascinating to me about cricket as a sport.
as time went on is how Matt, think it kind of is unique in the sense that I don't see any sport in the world where a singular sport has such a massive grip on so many people as like the one and only thing, right? Like you and I, we're American sport. I I watched football, basketball, baseball, right? Hockey, soccer.
tennis, whatever, you name it, I watch everything. There's no one sport that defines me. But for such a big part of the world, cricket is like the number one or maybe one of two. And so that sort of passion that I saw growing up always stayed with me and I developed a love for the sport as well, just like I love many sports. So, but that unique set of characteristics always stuck with me. And so the back of my mind over the years, I've always said, you know, maybe I'll do
Farrell Sports Business (07:14)
.
Zee (07:20)
something in cricket at some point.
Farrell Sports Business (07:23)
So it's such a like how you combine some of your your background of tech and entrepreneurism. Were there other sports business services out there, whether it be a sports business journal or single sport business sites and media outlets that you drew inspiration from on this?
Zee (07:46)
say inspiration. think that's too strong a word. I'd say, I mean, the inspiration or the ideas or whatever. looked at trade publications in other industries actually, not even in sports, right? And you see trade publications in entertainment, like Billboard and Variety and Hollywood Reporter and the likes. And they seem to be interesting businesses.
Farrell Sports Business (07:49)
Yeah.
Zee (08:13)
Right. They seem to be interesting ways to just get involved in the world and cover the world. And I felt there was a lot to cover and I thought there was coverage that was imperfect. The one thing I didn't mention is I had a little bit of foray into sports. Couple this dating myself in the mid 2000s as a as a soccer agent. Right. I got together with a couple of my buddies who were big soccer fans and and we were like, you know,
soccer's getting big in the US now, right? There's something here. So we started representing players here, right? To go to the MLS, we started representing players here, going abroad. And then soon we were representing European players in Europe. So we did it for a couple of years. And I found it pros and cons, right? I enjoyed sort of the sporting side of it, but I also, you know, I didn't really enjoy being an agent per se, right?
the like, yeah, it's the babysitting part of it that I just didn't really, you know, I'd say I'd rather be dealing with the business and talking about things, but there's so much of being an agent that needs to be done, right? But it's hand holding, it's dealing with the parents, it's dealing with like problems at all hours of the night and that sort of thing. And I just it wasn't as interesting to me, but it was great. It was a great way to be introduced into the song. And I still know a lot of people
Farrell Sports Business (09:12)
It's a tough gig.
Zee (09:39)
still friendly with a lot of the people I became friends with from that world. But when I was looking at Cricket, I said, well, I don't want to get involved from that angle, right? Let me get involved more from sort of like a media and a content angle and then maybe other businesses from there. that also informed what I did.
Farrell Sports Business (10:04)
So you're obviously some North American, you know, born in Canada, you're us based now, but when you look at crick exec, you're, how much are you looking at it globally when you wake up each day or a us slant or not at all.
Zee (10:23)
It is, it's global, right? It's global with a soft spot that I have for the U.S. because I'm here. Right. So, you know, it's funny, Matt, when Cricket Exec was started, right, it was kind of an oddity. And I thought it was maybe a disadvantage that I was based in the U.S. Right. Because there's like, you know, 18, 19 minor league cricket hadn't started, major league cricket hadn't started. We're like years away from all of that. And we quickly ran into COVID. And it was just really odd when I would
tell people, I'm based in the U.S. would be sort of what. But I was very keen on we got to cover the world. That's the whole point. It's a global sport. There's many countries where it's a big deal and they're interdependent. And with the emergence of T20 cricket, there was a franchise circuit developing. Players are playing all over. And so I the coverage for me, there's no question is global. And we are global property. Our followers are global and whatnot. What's interesting is obviously
we're well positioned to cover what's going on in the U.S. and we do that just like we do any other major country. But also what started off as a disadvantage or I thought would be a disadvantage has turned into a pretty good thing. Like being based in the U.S. now is great in the cricket world. know, obviously with the World Cup, the T20 World Cup that happened last year and then, know, cricket being included in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
There is a lot of interest in America. And, you know, this goes back a couple of years before with the MLC being formed and a lot of the, you know, the teams, three of the six teams in the Major League Cricket, you know, world are owned outright by IPL teams. One is a joint venture. There's an Australian presence and a couple of other teams. So the cricket world is really fascinated with the U.S. right now and is keen to kind of get footholds and whatnot. So it's actually turned out to be a good thing to be.
position in the US, right? It's kind of a parallel to what happened with me in soccer, which is at first people are like, an American cricket agent? mean, American soccer agent? What's up with that? And eventually they got it and we explained the advantages and whatnot. But here it was sort of based in the US really. But now there's a lot of cricket world interest in America and that's a great thing. Now, back to your question about coverage. Coverage is global.
I have started a new media property, just that's more of a passion project called 1709 Cricket, which is focused entirely on cricket in the US. On the player level, right, on the team, on the grassroots level, just the going on in cricket in the US. And that, you know, I've only been doing it for a couple of months. And that's really like gaining a lot of traction really fast because
You know, I wanted to bring attention to what's going on in the U.S. There's so many American cricket fans who, and this is just like soccer, whose attention is focused outward, right? They focus back in their home countries. They focus on international cricket. They focus on the IPL. But in, you know, we want them to focus on what's going on in America, right? With the American domestic players and leagues and whatnot. So it's been great. And we've built a really big following among all the players.
and the teams and the leagues and the content gets a lot of engagement and the players, you know, I think appreciate the attention that we're trying to bring to them. So that's how I sort of satisfy some of my kind of US indulgence, right? Or urge to kind of, yeah, but it's great time for cricket in America.
Farrell Sports Business (14:04)
It's a great explanation.
that one will lean have a little more sport type coverage.
Zee (14:14)
Yeah, yeah. And if you look at it, know, at 1709 Cricket, right now we're mainly on Instagram. We're going to branch out to other platforms as well. We've got a website. It's really about the players, some match coverage, but really what I really want to focus on and what I have been focusing on is like the stories, right? The players' personal stories, right? The stories of the people who are building cricket so that, you know,
if you look at some of the reels we have up there on Instagram, and this is what the players actually appreciate, which is, you know, if I say, okay, know, Andries Hauss hit, you know, a century in this match and, you know, he had this many boundaries, we do that, right? We still do that. But if I create a clip and post a clip where he's talking about his family or about his challenges or coming to the U.S., which we've done with several of the national team players,
people connect with that in a different way and remember that more actually, right, than what happened in a certain match. So that's part of the project there.
Farrell Sports Business (15:18)
So this is a fairly broad question. So I encourage you to kind of take it where you want to go. But as you look holistically at cricket and maybe we separate this question of the world versus the U S in any trends that you're seeing on the business side of cricket, what's, what's changing business wise with cricket over, over the last five years, 10 years, whatever.
Zee (15:32)
Sure.
I would say Matt, the biggest trend I see worldwide, and you even see a little bit of this in North America, but really a worldwide trend is it's almost like an oversaturation or something close to an oversaturation of international franchise tournaments. So whether it's T20,
right? Every country has a domestic T20 league. Or it's T10, which is now starting to become a thing, right? There are several T10 tournaments that are big and are around and there's more that seem to be added all the time. And I think by and large it's a good thing, right? To have more opportunities for players to play, for players to make money, right? For awareness to be brought.
But I think there's a lot of people asking whether it's too much. Whether it's too much from the sense and perspective of players feel like it's almost like hitting a candy store. This is how they make their living. Maybe they're playing too much. They're playing too many tournaments. I think it might be too much in terms of fan attention as well. There's also, you have a lot of players who do this circuit.
And the challenge then becomes how much attachment do fans of these new tournaments really feel towards the team where they're full of the same players who just played in the same tournament in another country like a month ago. So I think...
Farrell Sports Business (17:24)
So a little bit of a scarcity type argument, almost like a World Cup or an Olympics.
Zee (17:29)
Yeah, think it's like the other end of the spectrum of the scarcity. We're not trying to create scarcity, but we just want to avoid saturation, right? Where fans just feel like there's too much, but also... So we're not trying to make it scarce. I don't think the answer is make it scarce. I think the answer is maybe a little less of it. And you've got a lot of tournaments that are sort of...
conflicting with each other and you have examples of players who'll be in a tournament for a few days and then they have to go to another tournament and then someone else will come take their place. So it's a little bit, you know, I don't think we're there where it's a crisis, but I see a lot of tournaments popping up. But when I talk to people, right, like,
I had Tom Moffat, who's the head of the World Cricketers Association, which is the kind of federation of all the different cricketers associations, the players groups in different countries. He was on our podcast, the CrickExec podcast, and we were talking about this and he was like, look, just, same tone that I'm striking. He was like, we don't want to...
we're not saying cut it out, but he was like, there are issues that are coming up, right? Calendars need to be coordinated and, and, know, you need to think about it from the player's perspective as well. The welfare of the players. We don't want players to sort of burn out. And it's different than other sports, right? You look at soccer, you have one club and your country, right? That's it. And for cricket, you know, a player, fine, if they're, if they're a national team player, they're centrally contracted, whatever, they have their country, but then they have like,
10 different, five, three, two, seven, you pick the number of different clubs that they're a part of. And they're almost like individual, it's almost like an individual sport that way where they're trying to go find gigs all over the world. It's more like golf than soccer where you were with your club and that's your club until you're traded or until you're sold to another team. So anyway, that was a long answer to what I think is, I think from a macro perspective,
Farrell Sports Business (19:30)
Yeah.
Zee (19:32)
one of the biggest challenges that the sport needs to figure out. And there's limit to how much can be done. The ICC sanctioned some of these tournaments, but it's not going to around telling anyone you can't do this, you can't do that. It's just the market is creating these tournaments, maybe too many. And so that's the question for the industry.
Farrell Sports Business (19:55)
How about the other side of this? And this may be more of a US centric question on this one. Getting young people and kids involved in trying the sport. What are you seeing on the business side there? How is the sport positioning itself to get kids playing in the United States?
Zee (20:01)
Sure.
You know, I think, Matt, it's a mix. I think there's some things that are very positive and very exciting to see. I think there's some things that where collectively we can do a little better. I think there is, you know, the USA cricket has pathways, has some degree of infrastructure. I think, you know, at a macro level, one challenge that cricket faces and many sort of
countries that are largely immigrant countries, right, they call it the U.S. and Canada, is that, you know, cricket is, know, the kids interested in cricket are by and large children who are of South Asian or Caribbean descent, right, whose parents are cricket fans and that's how, because cricket's not big as a sport here. So within those communities when you've got parents and families who know the sport or encourage the sport,
Farrell Sports Business (21:03)
Mm-hmm.
Zee (21:13)
there is that interest, right? So that as a starting point, it's good. I don't think it's a bad thing at all, right? The sport needs a base. For those kids, there are some pathways there, right? Where I see encouraging signs is, is demand is there. There are a lot more academies sort of sprouting up. Minor league teams are starting to help develop some of the players. I see facilities springing up all over the country, right? Which is good. There's investment, there's academies, there's, know,
So that's good. The challenge is and where we need to do a better job are a few areas. One, I think it's one thing for like I could start an academy and I wouldn't know what I was doing. I think it's one thing to have an academy, it's another thing to have one run well where you're developing talent the right way. You're taking kids from A to B to C.
You're giving them the skills the right way. And I see some really good academies out there where you've got people involved who know what they're doing. So obviously, Liam Plunkett, who you and I both know, right, LPC is really about that, right? It's about partnering with academies and bringing his expertise and knowledge so they can do it the right way. So I think that's one thing that has to be done is academies need to be run well. But there are other ones that are run well, like the East Bay Blazers, which is a...
minor league team, those in the finals, they have an academy that Biju Nair, the owner runs. And I was there in San Francisco and I saw them, you know, working. They don't have a facility of their own, but they play in other facilities and it's really well run. Right. And they're coached by some of the minor league players. Very great setup. Right. But that, you know, that's 250 kids in their academy. And, you know, the reach of these well run academies are, you know, they're there, but it's finite.
So the question is how do we ensure that kids all over the country get the kind of quality coaching and mentoring that they need. So that's one challenge. I'd say another challenge, which I would love to see handled, but it's a bigger, bigger problem is infrastructure and facilities. Cricket is a strange sport. Cricket is not a sport where you can easily repurpose other facilities.
Farrell Sports Business (23:29)
Yeah.
Zee (23:37)
to have high quality cricket facilities. can't share a top level cricket stadium with like baseball or football because dimensions don't work. It's kind of unique. So that's that level. But even level down, know, there aren't a lot, you know, there aren't a ton of good places for kids to play. That's a tougher one to solve. That's going to involve investment, right, from maybe private sector, but also USA cricket. there's facilities that need to be
put in place. And then the last thing I would say is I think we can all do a better job with women's cricket, with girls cricket. I think, you know, as challenging as it is for guys or young boys, right, a girl who's interested in cricket has, you know, 10 times the amount of challenges from really lack of tournaments because there fewer of them and we're a dispersed country. Like, where do they even play?
Farrell Sports Business (24:15)
Yeah.
Zee (24:34)
Right. They sometimes are welcome playing with the boys, sometimes they're not. And, you know, there's not this, and this is actually a worldwide problem. is the U.S. has this problem, but it's unfortunate that the whole world has a problem when it comes to giving women's cricket the appropriate sort of treatment, attention and investment. And I think the U.S. it's an opportunity for us to lead the way on that front. Right. In a way that
We have a ways to go, but if you look at soccer, the US men's team has in the last couple of decades emerged as a decent team, but the women's team has always been one of the dominant ones worldwide. And I think in cricket, I would love to see us get to that place. There's a lot of work to be done. And I know some of the players on the women's team and they're great and they're so young. they're like, you know, we have an 18 year old captain and we have a 16 year old who just hit our first.
century, which I think was the first ODI century by a US player, right? So they're young, they're great, you know, but even they will say that like, you know, we need more opportunities in this country. So sorry for the long answer, but I could go on for hours about what we can do better.
Farrell Sports Business (25:44)
Yeah. No, it's, it's, those are always the opportunities. I tell you what, you've got one new converted fan of the sport. about two or three weeks ago, I tried cricket at, social sixes in the Dallas area. So I might tack that video onto the very end. So it doesn't interrupt your important conversation, but it's more self.
Zee (26:01)
Yes, in Dallas, yes.
Farrell Sports Business (26:10)
deprecating my phone is not ringing Z of like, hey, we see some talent in that guy. But it was so fun. It was so fun.
Zee (26:16)
That's so funny. It's so much fun. I went there in the summer, right, when I was down for the Major League Cricket Finals in Dallas and a couple of guys from Willow.
TV, we're like, come to Six, I was just hanging out with them. And we went and it was so much fun, right? So I think that's another thing to play. Yeah, and I think they're gonna, what I heard when I was talking to people there is that they're thinking of opening up more throughout the country. And I think there's a huge place for that, right? And they use a special technology, I think it's called...
Farrell Sports Business (26:38)
it's a blast.
Zee (26:54)
Batfast, quote me on, yeah, Batfast, right? It's a company out of England. Like I know that I'm in touch with, you know, just through CricExec in touch with the founders and they do some cool stuff. So it's that technology that was licensed here for sixes, but it's such a great time, right? And just like Topgolf, right? People will go and they'll play and they'll have fun and like you and I, they won't be that good, but they'll still have fun, right? And that's kind of the point. And cause Crick, it's not, you know, like
Farrell Sports Business (26:55)
BatFast.
Zee (27:23)
When would you and I, like I'm not a player, right? I friends who always try to get me out, but I know who I am and where I am in the sport and I shouldn't step on a field. But like when are we gonna have the opportunity to play, right? It's not like you can go down to a basketball court and whatever. I think it's a great concept and I think that can only be anything that draws attention, anything that's fun for people to do and engage with and get to know the sport. I'm a big fan of it.
Farrell Sports Business (27:47)
It was fun. I'll show you the video and it's going to not help anything with my credibility, but I'm like you. I'm I know my seat and what lane I'm supposed to be in. anything Z that we didn't hit, I call it the shameless plug in how to find CricExec, how to find 1709. What did just give you an opportunity to hit something that maybe I missed?
Zee (27:59)
Yeah.
Sure.
Yeah, mean, look, at CrickExec, can find anywhere. It's C-R-I-C, like short for Cricket, Exec, short for Executive, E-X-E-C. That handle we have everywhere, right?
On our website, QuickExec.com, our LinkedIn, we have a page that's pretty big and has a good following. Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, you name it, we're there. We have a daily email newsletter, right? Five days a week, which we call the daily briefing, which just gives, you know, top headlines of cricket news throughout the world, like business news, industry news, which is, you know, on our site, but it's a good summary for people. And we have a lot of subscribers to that who find it valuable. And...
If you're looking for a job, right, in the cricket world, you can check out the job section of our site. So that's QuickExec 1709 Cricket. You know, if you are interested in cricket in the US, definitely follow us on Instagram, on our website.
putting some more stuff on it, trying to get an organized group of supporters. We're trying to call them the 1709 Army to be the supporters of the national team and travel around with them. There's the Barmi Army in the UK and there's the Bharat Army in India. I think we need an army of our own. think there's going to be a while before they really...
we get the critical mass, but you'd be surprised, Matt, at how many individual cricket fanatics there are out there. And so that gives me encouragement. And some of them are like me, right? South Asian descent and love the sport. Some of them are like you. Not of South Asian descent, not of Caribbean descent, not grew up, no cricket connection, just fell in love with the sport. And there's so many people like that and that gives me encouragement.
Farrell Sports Business (29:42)
I get it.
Zee (29:58)
So yeah, check out 1709Cricket and check out CrickExec and then reach out to me through either of those channels. You can DM whatever and you'll get to us.
Farrell Sports Business (30:10)
Well, it's really great stuff. I appreciate you joining. You've got a follower and a fan of the sport here. Take that for what it's worth, but it's just been phenomenal to learn. And I'm just so bullish on where the sport can go, especially in the United States here in the coming years. The table's set. So, Z, thank you so much.
Zee (30:35)
Yeah, couldn't agree more with everything you said about the potential for the sport and thanks for having me on and helping the conversation move forward.
Farrell Sports Business (30:43)
You got it. See you soon, Z.
Zee (30:45)
Cheers.
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