Cricket may not be as popular a sport in the United States as it is in other parts of the world, but some high-profile CEOs and investors are trying to change that.
As the men's T20 Cricket World Cup, co-hosted by the United States for the first time, progresses, investors have pumped almost $1 billion into its American ambition.
microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen is among the executives investing in America's new professional league, Major League Cricket. Other cricket investors include Iconic Ventures, Madrona Venture Group and executives from Google.
“What excites me is to see if cricket can become a popular sport in the United States,” said Soma Somasegar, venture capitalist and CEO of Madrona.
Somasegar and Nadella are among the key owners of the Seattle cricket team, called Orcas. They are also investors in the league at large.
“satya [Nadella] and I've been talking about bringing cricket to America for many years,” Somasegar told CNBC.
Nadella is such a die-hard cricket fan that Microsoft has a cricket field on its campus in Bellevue, Washington.
USA National Cricket Team's Monank Patel celebrates his half-century (50 runs) during the ICC Men's T20 Cricket World Cup match between USA and Pakistan at the Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium in Dallas , June 6, 2024.
Matt Roberts | CPI | fake images
“Many of us immigrants grew up with this sport. We studied and watched cricket. Over and over again,” Somasegar said.
In total, nearly $850 million is currently being invested in building a viable cricket league in the United States, people familiar with the funding said. The people asked not to be identified because the funding information is private.
Currently, there are six professional teams in Major League Cricket., Each team is expected to spend between $75 million and $100 million in the coming years. That includes the cost of building a team, hiring the right talent and building stadiums where live cricket matches can be played.
Adding to the fanfare is the T20 World Cup, which will be held at three venues in the US and several in the West Indies throughout June.
In a tough blow Thursday, the American team beat Pakistan in a match near Dallas. Fans are now counting down to the much-awaited India vs. Pakistan on Sunday at the newly developed Nassau County Stadium in New York.
The last time India and Pakistan met, more than 300 million people in India tuned in to watch the match, according to The New York Times.
Ticket reseller StubHub said the average ticket price for Sunday's rivalry game is $1,300. The average price of the other 54 matches in the tournament is $120, the company said.
Venture capitalist Anurag Jain, co-owner of Major League Cricket team the San Francisco Unicorns, said the United States national team is primarily made up of players from the league.
“The aim is to make cricket a mainstream sport,” said Satyan Gajwani, vice-president of Times Internet, the digital arm of the Times of India. He runs Willow TV, which has exclusive rights to broadcast cricket in North America, including the T20 World Cup.
Gajwani is also one of the investors in the American league. He said his group goes after the incredibly loyal South Asian fans who live in the US.
“Basically, there are 5 million really hardcore fans who love cricket,” Gajwani told CNBC, referring to the South Asian diaspora in the United States.
He added that expats from the United Kingdom and Australia living in the United States are also big consumers of cricket.
South Asians have on average the highest gross income of any ethnic group in the US, according to research by Indiaspora, a nonprofit community of Indian leaders around the world.
“That leaves a lot of discretionary income available to spend on sports and entertainment,” said MR Rangaswami, founder and president of Indiaspora.
Rangaswami, who said he will attend Sunday's game, acknowledged that the American sports scene is hard to beat, as Americans are consumed by basketball and soccer. He said a possible entry point could be through fans of baseball, which bears some resemblance to cricket.
—CNBC jessica golden contributed to this report.
