Satya Nadella of Microsoft and Shah Rukh Khan now have a cricket connection

Anurag Jain is a member of a group that includes powerful businesspeople with Indian ancestry that is introducing the second-most played game in the world to American audiences

Anurag Jain has always loved cricket, but after finding out how much players made, he gave up his dream of making a career out of it and eventually entered the business world.

He co-founded Perot Jain, a venture capital firm, with Texas billionaire Ross Perot Jr. and currently serves as its managing partner. If everything goes according to plan, Jain could influence the game in a way that a bat and ball could never.

Dallas-based team the Texas Super Kings, which was founded this year, is co-owned by Jain and Perot. In the inaugural match of Major League Cricket in the US on Thursday night, Jain’s group, which is also supported by the Chennai Super Kings of the IPL, faced off against the Los Angeles Knight Riders.

Jain is a member of a team that includes powerful businesspeople with Indian ancestry who are introducing the second-most played game in the world to American audiences. Shantanu Narayen, the CEO of Adobe Inc., and Satya Nadella, who owns stock in Seattle’s professional team, the Orcas, have also expressed interest in playing in Major League Cricket. Shah Rukh Khan, the most well-known actor in Bollywood, is funding a cricket stadium for the league close to Los Angeles.

In an interview, Jain stated, “My vested interest was to bring cricket right into the heart of America.” “At the local levels, I see a lot of cricket being played one-off, at the club and league levels. But not professionally, which is something I really wanted to change.

For years, the sport has been steadily gaining popularity in the US, particularly in cities like Houston, New York, and Los Angeles that have sizable South Asian populations. More than 220,000 Indian-Americans reside in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area alone.

Cricket is a bat-and-ball sport like baseball that is characterised by lengthy matches, obscure terminology, and a seemingly mystical reverence for playing statistics by ardent supporters. The version being pitched to American sports fans will be a condensed version of a longer format that has recently supported numerous cricket leagues worldwide and typically lasts three to four hours.

Although it has its roots in England, it is popular worldwide and is second only to football in terms of viewership and participation in Commonwealth nations like India, South Africa, and Australia. The 2008-launched Indian Premier League has grown to be the commercial centre of the sport, bringing in the largest audiences, biggest stars, and most revenue. Tiger Global Management is reportedly in advanced talks to purchase a stake in the Rajasthan Royals for $40 million, valuing the team at $650 million, according to a May report from Bloomberg. 

Investors have already committed $120 million to the fledgling US cricket league, betting that by luring superstars from abroad, the sport can draw live audiences in the US and tap into a large fan base worldwide.

The Texas Super Kings are currently in action in Grand Prairie, a suburb of Dallas, where the Texas AirHogs, a minor league baseball team, used to call home. The 6,000-seat venue is 10 minutes’ drive from Arlington’s 80,000-seat Dallas Cowboys stadium. 

According to Jain, he learned about the stadium from Perot, a former owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. 

Jain, who was born and raised in Chennai, claims to have once been the fastest bowler in his hometown. He had ambitions to play professionally until he learned about the sport’s financial viability.

“Back then, players made about $1.50 per game, and there were probably 20 match days per year. That wasn’t enough money, so my father sat me down and told me that my days playing cricket were over and that I should return to school to become an engineer.

Jain attended the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani for his undergraduate studies before earning his MBA from the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business. He founded a business after relocating to the US, which he later sold to Ross Perot in 2003. In 2014, Perot and Jain founded their venture firm.

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For those who don’t want to endure the Texas summer heat on Thursday, when temperatures are predicted to reach over 100F (38C), the game will be broadcast live. There will also be standard ballpark fare, like samosas, in addition to South Asian cuisine.

The majority of the two-week season’s games will be played in Dallas, but a small number will also be in Morrisville, North Carolina. The games are being broadcast by India’s Viacom18, and they will end on July 30. Although a second league has not yet been planned, if the first one is successful, the season will be extended to eight to ten weeks, which is more typical.

Participants have travelled from all over the world.

When he agreed to a deal with Major League Cricket in 2020 and relocated to California with his wife from South Africa, Cody Chetty of the Texas Super Kings took a chance.

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Although he had 11 years of professional playing experience in South Africa, he was eager for the chance to play in the US. Chetty has been instructing young people in cricket and working as a real estate agent since relocating to Southern California. He is currently waiting for the league to begin. Chetty considers Los Angeles to be his permanent home and has been taken aback by the level of interest from locals.

On his move to the US, Chetty stated, “We were looking at the cricket side of it as well as life after cricket.