Knight Riders Group to invest in Major Cricket League in the USA


Knight Riders Group to invest in Major Cricket League in the USA

Shah Rukh Khan, co-owner of Knight Riders Group, decided to invest in America’s multi-million dollar T20 tournament Major League Cricket (MLC). The cash-rich competition, expected to kick-start in 2020 can be the much-needed boost for the future of American Cricket.

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Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla along with her husband Jay Mehta own the Knight Riders Group. They already have two T20 cricket franchises: Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL and Trinbago Knight Riders in CPL. They now bought the Los Angeles-based franchise, naming it LA Knight Riders. Apart from this, five other teams based in New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Chicago and Dallas would take part in the inaugural season of MLC.

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“For several years now, we have been expanding the Knight Riders brand globally and closely watching the potential for T20 cricket in the US. We are convinced that Major League Cricket has all the pieces in place to execute its plans. We look forward to making our partnership an enormous success in the coming years,” Shah Rukh Khan said.

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‘US is the second-largest market to consume cricket content’

KKR CEO Venky Mysore

Knight Riders Group CEO Venky Mysore talked about the potential growth of cricket in the markets of the USA. 

“Even though cricket is not a mainstream sport here, the size of the diaspora and appetite for cricket is so strong. Interestingly, the US is the second-largest market to consume cricket content, after India,” Venky Mysore said.

“The combination of Bollywood and T20 cricket has been extremely successful in other markets. We’re looking to leverage that to the extent we can in content creation; the merger of entertainment and cricket,” American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) co-founder Vijay Srinivasan told Yahoo Sports.

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