Forget Pickleball. The First American Pro Cricket League Is Luring Deep-Pocketed Investors—and Selling Out Tickets.

Abby Montanez
·2 min read
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Move over, pickleball. There’s an even bigger sport in town.


This week, Major League Cricket will play its first-ever game in the U.S. and every last ticket to the highly anticipated opener has been sold. (Don’t worry, it’s also being broadcast live.) The Texas Super Kings will face off against the Los Angeles Knight Riders at Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas on Thursday. The 6,000-person venue replaced the former home of the professional baseball team, the AirHogs. Anurag Jain, the managing partner of venture capitalist firm Perot Jain, is part-owner of the Texas Super Kings and founded the Dallas-based franchise earlier this year in hopes of creating a buzz stateside.

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The first Major League Cricket match will debut at the converted Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas


“My vested interest was to bring cricket right into the heart of America,” Jain told Bloomberg. “I see a lot of cricket being played one off, club level, league level, at the local levels. But not at the professional level and that’s what I really wanted to change.”


Cricket is currently ranked as the second-biggest sport in the world right behind soccer, and Jain’s not the only one betting on its future. Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, alongside business mogul Jay Mehta, acquired the Knight Riders back in 2020 and has plans to build his own state-of-the-art cricket stadium 40 miles outside L.A. The $30 million venture is being spearheaded by Major League Cricket and designed by award-winning architecture firm HKS.

texas super kings american cricket
Renowned South African cricketer Faf du Plessis will serve as captain of Texas Super Kings

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Historically, the bat and ball sport has struggled to develop a fan base outside of India, South Africa, Australia, and the U.K. However, deep-pocketed investors are willing to put an impressive $120 million into the U.S. league to expand its profile in America, Bloomberg reported.


Of course, with this kind of financial backing, cricketers from across the globe want in on the action. The Texas Super Kings have since signed overseas players including Devon Conway, Dwayne Bravo, and David Miller. Veteran South African batter Faf du Plessis has also joined the team as captain, while West Indies spinner Sunil Narine leads the Los Angeles Knight Riders.


“American sports fans want to see the best in the world,” MLC co-founder Vijay Srinivasan told BBC Sport. “That’s the demand in U.S. professional sports.”