MUMBAI: Times Group-owned American Cricket Enterprises (ACE), USA Cricket’s commercial rights partner, has deferred the launch of Major League Cricket (MLC), the Indian Premier League-templated T20 tournament that was targeting launch in 2022, by a year to 2023.
Reason: The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
As per the schedule announced in December 2020, MLC was scheduled to kick off after the conclusion of the 2022 IPL in the same year. The proposed tournament will initially have six franchises representing the cities of New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles.
It was in December that ACE had announced a slate of 20+ “founding investors” in MLC, with the list consisting of business executives and technology entrepreneurs, notable among which were Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella, Paytm founder Vijay Sharma and Adobe chief executive Shantanu Narayen.
ACE has also confirmed the Shah Rukh Khan co-owned Knight Rider Sports Pvt Ltd (KRSPL) as a “key investor” in MLC. For the record, KRSPL is the holding company that owns and operates two T20 franchises – the Kolkata Knight Riders IPL team and the Trinbago Knight Riders in the Caribbean Premier League.
As already reported by SportzPower, apart from pledging around $15-20 million in equity and getting marquee players to the US, the KRSPL think tank will also leverage their expertise at MLC in designing the governance structure and the economic model.
MLC full investor list:
Aditya Agarwal, ex-Facebook and Dropbox CTO
Amish Mehta, founder of SQN Investors
Amit Singhal, former senior VP at Google and head of Google’s Search team
Anand Rajaraman, founding partner at Milliways Ventures and Rocketship VC
Anurag Jain, chairman of Access Healthcare, co-founder of Perot Jain, L.P.
Aravind Melligeri, chairman & CEO of Aequs and founder of QuEST Global Services
Ashok Krishnamurthi, managing partner, GreatPoint Ventures and founder of CAPP Medical and Xsigo. Former EVP at Juniper Networks.
The Baheti Family, owners of YASH Technologies
Divesh Makan, founder at ICONIQ Capital
Harsh Shroff, quantitative trader
Mayank Upadhyay, distinguished engineer, Google
Neeraj Arora, former chief business officer at Whatsapp
Raju Reddy, founder and former CEO of Sierra Atlantic
Rishi Chandra, VP/GM of Google Nest
Rohyt Belani, co-founder and CEO, COFENSE
Ross Perot, Jr. chairman of The Perot Group and Hillwood, co-founder of Perot Jain, L.P.
Sanjay Govil, chairman of Infinite Computer Solutions and CEO of Zyter, Inc
Sanjeev Rao, private wealth manager
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, part owner of Seattle Sounders
Shantanu Narayen, chairman and CEO of Adobe
Shashin Shah, founder, Think Investments and director, Dream 11
Soma Somasegar, MD of Madrona Venture Group, former Microsoft SVP, part owner of Seattle Sounders
Sravish Sridhar, founder/CEO of Kintent and angel investor
Subrah Iyar, founder of Webex, founder and CEO of Moxtra
Troy Detrick, founder of Canyon Oak Ventures and commercial real estate investor
Venky Harinarayan, founding partner at Milliways Ventures and Rocketship VC
Venu Palaparthi, CCO + head of Regulatory Affairs at DASH
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm
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