India, Dec. 8 -- Global cricket finances could come under pressure sooner than anticipated with a strong possibility of the International Cricket Council (ICC) being forced to hammer out a scaled down media rights deal with current holders JioStar.

With less than two months to go for the upcoming edition of the T20 World Cup, the ICC is known to have initiated backroom negotiations for a new media rights deal (2026-29) for the Indian market. These talks are for a 20% price reduction from the existing deal (2024-27) of over $3 billion according to an industry source privy to developments. This has been necessitated with JioStar conveying to the governing body about their inability to honour the current deal in the prevailing market condit...