Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen are among executives investing in Major League Cricket, the new professional league in the U.S. Other investors in cricket include Iconiq Ventures, Madrona Venture Group and Google executives.
“It will be exciting to see if cricket becomes a mainstream sport in the U.S.,” said Soma Somaseghar, a venture capitalist and managing director at Madrona.
Sommersegur and Nadella are co-principal owners of the Seattle cricket team, the Orcas, and investors in the league as a whole.
“Satya [Nadella] “I’ve been talking about bringing cricket to America for many years,” Somaseghar told CNBC.
Nadella is an avid cricket fan, and Microsoft has a cricket arena on its campus in Bellevue, Washington.
Monank Patel of the United States national cricket team celebrates hitting 50 runs during the ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup match between USA and Pakistan at Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium on June 6, 2024 in Dallas.
Matt Roberts | ICC | Getty Images
“Many of us immigrants grew up with the sport. We studied cricket and watched it over and over,” Somaseghar said.
In total, about $850 million is now being invested to create a viable cricket league in the U.S., according to people familiar with the funding, who asked not to be named because the funding is private.
Currently, there are six professional teams in Major League Cricket., Each team is expected to spend around $75 million to $100 million over the next few years, which includes fielding the team, hiring the right talent and building stadiums where they can watch live cricket matches.
The T20 World Cup, being held in three locations in the United States and several in the West Indies during June, is adding to the excitement.
The US team recorded a shock win over Pakistan in a match near Dallas on Thursday and fans now look forward to Sunday’s highly anticipated match between India and Pakistan at a newly constructed stadium in Nassau County, New York.
According to The New York Times, the last time India and Pakistan played each other, more than 300 million people in India tuned in to watch the match.
Ticket reseller StubHub said the average price for tickets to Sunday’s rivalry game was $1,300. The average price for the tournament’s other 54 games was $120, the company said.
Anurag Jain, a venture capitalist and co-owner of the San Francisco Unicorns, a major league cricket team, said the U.S. national team is made up mostly of players from that league.
“The goal is to make cricket a mainstream sport,” said Satyan Gajwani, vice-chairman of Times Internet, the digital arm of The Times of India, and head of Willow TV, which has exclusive North American cricket rights, including the T20 World Cup.
Gajwani, who is also one of the investors in the US league, said the group was targeting the highly loyal South Asian fan base living in the US.
“There are 5 million passionate fans who love cricket,” Gajwani told CNBC, referring to South Asian immigrants living in the United States.
He added that expatriates from the UK and Australia living in the US are also big cricket fans.
According to a study by Indiaspora, a nonprofit group of Indian leaders around the world, South Asians have a higher overall income, on average, than any other ethnic group in the United States.
“This leaves a lot of disposable income which can be spent on sports and entertainment,” said MR Rangaswami, founder and chairman, Indiaspora.
Rangaswami plans to watch Sunday’s game but acknowledged it will be hard to break into the U.S. sports world because Americans are obsessed with basketball and soccer. He said a breakthrough could come through baseball fans, who have some similarities to cricket.
— CNBC Jessica Golden contributed to this report.
