Pay-television broadcaster Star India has appointed Gautam Thakar as the new chief executive of its Star Sports division.
Thakar will fill a role left vacant following the departure of Nitin Kukreja in March. He joins Star Sports after working for US venture capital firm Revolution.
Star India managing director Sanjay Gupta said: “We at Star have always set ourselves a bold growth agenda and we are confident that Gautam will contribute in taking the multi-sports culture that Star has pioneered in India, to the next level.”
Thakar joins as Star prepares for its first season as the rights-holder of Twenty20 cricket competition the Indian Premier League.
In September, Star ousted Sony Pictures Network India as the main rights-holder to the IPL after securing the global television and digital rights to the annual tournament.
Under an agreement with the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Star has paid Rs164.375bn (€2.17bn/$2.56bn) for all rights packages on offer across the five editions of the IPL, from 2018 to 2022.