Pacific Northwest Lands Major League Cricket Team: Seattle Orcas

Growing up in India before we had televisions, not that I want to date myself, I used to hunker down with my friends and a small handheld radio to listen to the commentary for five-day cricket test matches. The passion and excitement for cricket in India was always palpable. Cricket is THE national sport — I don't think you will find many Indians who are not excited about the game. That is why for the last four years, I have been part of a group of cricket-loving people working to bring Major League Cricket to the U.S. and, more specifically, to the greater Seattle area.

So today, I couldn't be more excited to share that the Seattle Orcas will represent the Seattle area, and the PNW more broadly, when Major League Cricket kicks off this summer.

We are also thrilled to partner with The Delhi Capitals ’ Co-owner GMR Group , to help us build a world-class cricket team in Seattle Orcas. The Delhi Capitals is a leading franchise in the Indian Premier League India with six playoff appearances and a first-place finish in the 2021 regular season standings.

Seattle is a prime location for a Major League Cricket franchise. The Seattle area has 10s of thousands of cricket-loving fans, with a good chunk of them playing on local teams, and it is home to a minor league team – the Seattle Thunderbolts, which started in 2021 and won the Minor League Championship in 2022. In addition, several cricket academies are in Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, and surrounding areas, and hundreds of teams participate in local leagues. I don't know whether it is the air or the water, but people in the Seattle area are amazing supporters of sports. We may not have the biggest numbers of people in the metro area, but we have the most excited, vibrant, and passionate fan group.

That combination of grassroots support for cricket and the fantastic community of sports lovers in general made my fellow investors, and I know the Seattle area was the perfect home for a team. We fully expect that this team will tap into the ethos that exists here to create an amazing fan base for cricket while also giving those less familiar with cricket the opportunity to learn about, fall in love with, and maybe even start playing the sport.

It has been a pleasure to drive the effort to land a Seattle cricket team, working with my co-owners – Satya Nadella , Samir Bodas , Ashok Krishnamurthi , and Sanjay Parthasarathy .

This moment has been years in the making. I started working with Major League Cricket Co-founders Sameer Mehta and Vijay Srinivasan behind the scenes in 2019 to help establish professional cricket in the U.S. When you think about it, there are probably upwards of 10 million people in the U.S. who are from cricket-playing countries — and cricket is the second most-watched sport in the world, behind only soccer. And interest in the sport has been growing. Many cities now have cricket academies for children to learn to play. There are over 25 teams in the minor league. But when we started those efforts, we knew we wanted Seattle to be home to one of the first major league teams.

When I first got involved in this, the Seattle area wasn’t being considered for a day-1 team. But there are two main reasons we were able to convince the group we had to change that and bring a major league cricket team here day 1 – the large and growing number of cricket-loving fans and the track record of our vibrant and passionate sports community in this region as evidenced by the depth and magnitude of support for every sports team in the Seattle area. So, a big thank you to all sports fans in and around Seattle and specifically to the cricket-loving fans.

Now, the Seattle Orcas are just one of six new Major League Cricket franchises launching around the country. The other cities are Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. ?The league will play in the T20 format and starts July 13, with the 2023 MLC championship final planned for July 30.

We, along with MLC, have been working with Redmond city, Bellevue city, and King County officials to build a cricket stadium. The goal is to build a 20-acre facility in the coming years to host up to 6,000 people for future Seattle Orcas home games and international cricket events.

Announcing the Seattle Orcas today is a monumental moment four years in the making. It has been very exciting for me to be involved both at the league and team levels to bring professional cricket to this country and, more importantly, to the Seattle area. I look forward to the upcoming 2023 season.

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