MUMBAI: Sunil Manocha, a sports industry veteran with over 20 years of experience across sales, business development, television production, rights distribution and sponsor servicing, has taken charge as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Nimbus Sport.

Manocha replaces Yannick Colaco completing a smooth leadership transition at Nimbus Sport. Colaco has joined NBA as its India Managing Director.

Manocha started his career with Nimbus and has worked on over two dozen major international sports projects over the last two decades, in a variety of management roles. These include the Cricket World Cups 1992 and 2003; the ICC Champions Trophies of 2000, 2002 and 2004, the Asian Games 1998, Hero Indian Open Golf 2012.

He also headed the advertising revenue function at Nimbus associate company Neo Sports with distinction through 2006-2008 before a brief stint away as an entrepreneur. He returned to Nimbus Sport in 2012 to continue his long running relationship with the company.

Speaking of Manocha?s appointment to the new role, Nimbus Communications chairman Harish Thawani said, "It is with pride, affection and respect that I welcome Sunil to his new role. The little master has in the past proved his tremendous capabilities in all areas of our operations. As much a man of relationships, as he is of strategic thinking and attention to detail, his love for sports, passion to excel and excellent interpersonal skills make him the ideal person to grow the business further."

On his new role, Manocha said, "With established expertise across all verticals of the sports value chain-from origination to intermediation to delivery, Nimbus Sport is fully equipped for growth in an exciting new era for sports business in India and Asia. It?s been a journey of great learning and excitement with Nimbus so far, and in this new role, I look forward to working with the team in leading the organisation to new heights."

Nimbus Sport is the full service sports marketing division of Nimbus Communications, specializing in television rights distribution and management, television production, sponsor services, event management, new media content and on-air advertising sales.