The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) has appointed Ramesh Kumar, former ESPN Vice President and Head of ESPN (India and South Asia) and Global Head of ESPNcricinfo, as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Center of Excellence in Sports Science and Analytics (CESSA).

Ramesh Kumar comes with a wealth of experience in sports industry & new business initiatives and is greatly positioned to lead this hub for sports analytics & science, which is first-of-its-kind in India and aims to be among top centres globally in a three-year time frame.

Kumar, an alumnus of IIT-M (BTech (ME), 1992 Batch) comes with more than three decades of industry experience with an initial corporate stint with the Tata Group in India and close to 24 years in the sports industry.

He has been providing leadership to drive global digital leadership, innovation and growth of the world’s no 1 digital sports brand ‘ESPNcricinfo’. He also drove overall strategic leadership for ESPN India and South Asia operations.

The Center of Excellence in Sports Science and Analytics at IIT-M will be a global platform for fostering innovation in sports technology and deliver products and solutions to enhance athlete performance and also serve general fitness and health consumers. It will also create and deliver products and solutions across media platforms and work with sporting federations and bodies (creating their platforms and enhancing on ground experience and working with other media platforms) to increase fan engagement.

CESSA will also be establishing an incubator ecosystem for sport tech startups. Over the next few years, CESSA will also take the lead in carrying out cutting-edge research in sports science and analytics in collaboration with leading institutes in the world.