Tech CEOs love cricket
Tech execs like Pichai and Nadella are going all in on cricket—backing leagues in the US and UK with millions in funding. With growing fan interest and Olympic momentum, the sport may finally break through in America.
You can add cricket to the list of things beloved by tech CEOs, alongside trying to build world-ending robots and giving over-the-top presentations.
An ownership group led by Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora that also includes tech CEOs Sundar Pichai (Google), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Shantanu Narayen (Adobe), and Egon Durban (Silver Lake) is finalizing a $173 million investment into The Hundred, a fast-paced, UK-based cricket league created in 2021.
Sound familiar? Major League Cricket – a six-team, US-based T20 league (T20 denotes the specific format + rules) – played its inaugural season in 2023. It was backed by $120 million in capital from some of the same tech CEO investors, including Nadella and Narayen.
Coming to America
Cricket is the second-most-watched sport in the world. It’s the most popular sport in India, the world’s most populous country, and enjoys similar appeal in parts of the Caribbean and countries such as England, South Africa, and Australia.
But Major League Cricket and its big-name investors, many of whom hail from America’s Indian community and have a passion for the sport – Pichai dreamed of playing pro cricket as a kid, while Nadella is such a die-hard fan that Microsoft has a cricket field at its Bellevue, WA, campus – are especially working to increase the sport’s popularity in the US.
To do so, they’ll have to succeed where others for decades have failed. The short-lived Pro Cricket, an eight-team US-based league established in 2004, ceased operations after one year due to poor attendance.
But so far, so good for MLC.
- In 2023, Major League Cricket’s debut season, the league exceeded expectations, generating ~$8 million in revenue and selling out all of its matches. Matches were especially popular among young people; at least 80% of those in attendance were 35-years-old or younger.
- The league’s second season was also a success, with higher merch sales, viewership, and attendance.
- To keep pace with this growth, four more franchises are expected to be added in the near future, and the season will nearly double from 19 games to 34 games this year.
Could America become a cricket destination? Last summer, the US hosted the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup for the first time. 190,000+ fans attended matches, an "unprecedented [level of] interest in cricket in the USA from sports fans," per the ICC.
Speaking of global stages…Cricket is slated to return to the Olympics in 2028, following a 128-year hiatus.
