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The Billionaires And Tech Execs Pumping Millions Into Cricket
Sundar Pichai playing cricket in India in 2017.
CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images
- Investors have been piling cash into cricket in recent years.
- They are targeting the sport's global appeal and new short-format competitions.
- Investors include Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and India's billionaire Ambani family.
Cricket has never quite captured the American audience, but it is fast becoming one of the hottest investments in the US.
Billionaires and tech executives are just some of the investors spending big on the game as they eye up its huge global appeal and new tournaments designed to appeal to younger audiences.
A recent auction of franchises in the UK's The Hundred — a short-format cricket league launched in 2021 — saw investors from Silicon Valley, New York, and India pile cash into the competition.
Business Insider has taken a look at some of the big names investing in the sport.
Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO
Jason Redmond / AFP/ Getty Images
The Microsoft CEO was part of a consortium of 11 tech executives who agreed to a reported £145 million (roughly $180 million) deal for a 49% stake in The Hundred's London Spirit team.
It's not the first time Nadella has put money into the sport. He was among the lead investors in the US's Major League Cricket and co-owns the league's Seattle Orcas team.
Speaking ahead of the 2024 T20 Cricket World Cup, Nadella told Bloomberg that cricket was a "big deal" for him.
"I love the sport, and I'm glad that it's now being played even in the United States," he said.
Sundar Pichai, Google CEO
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Pichai was another member of the elite consortium that made headlines with its investment in the Spirit.
The Google exec is also a long-time fan of the sport and has said he dreamed of being a cricketer when he was growing up. In an interview with the BBC in 2021, he put his skills to the test and took up both bat and ball against the outlet's Amol Rajan on the Google campus.
Shantanu Narayen, Adobe CEO
Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Like Nadella, Narayen was a member of the tech consortium and also previously invested in Major League Cricket. He is part of the MLC's San Francisco Unicorn team, which is owned by Rocketship.vc partners Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman.
Speaking with CNBC-TV18 in June, Narayen said he was continuing to try to build the sport in the US.
"The question is how do you encourage that farm system?" he said. "Whether it's Satya or me, we love cricket, and we'll continue to champion it."
Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks
KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images
Arora led the group that purchased the Spirit.
In a post on LinkedIn following the deal, the CEO said he was excited to partner with Lord's — known as "The Home of Cricket" — and his fellow techies to support The Hundred.
"A strong passion for sports brings us all together, Cricket is the second most popular sport in the world. Time to put the hundreds on the map," he wrote.
In an interview with The Times of London, Arora called it a "one-of-a-kind asset."
"We might have paid higher than we thought but we were keen to get the asset and I talked to many of my passionate consortium members and we all figured we'd keep stretching until it became uncomfortable," he added.
The consortium also includes Indian media tycoon Satyan Gajwani and Sequoia's Jim Goetz, per Arora.
India's billionaire Ambani familyMukesh Ambani with his wife Nita Ambani and their son Anant Ambani.
Reliance Industries/Handout via REUTERS
Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of the multinational conglomerate Reliance Industries, is India's richest person, with a net worth of nearly $90 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
His company reportedly purchased a 49% stake in the Oval Invincibles team worth £60 million (around $74 million).
Reliance Industries also owns the Indian Premier League's Mumbai Indians, one of the league's most successful franchises.
The Ambani's cricket empire also includes the MLC's MI New York team, which won the first edition of the competition.
Egon Durban, co-CEO of Silver Lake Partners
Silver Lake
Durban, co-CEO of the tech-focused private equity firm Silver Lake, was also part of Arora's tech consortium.
It's not Silver Lake's first foray into sports. In 2022, the company invested NZ$200 million (around $113 million as of today) in New Zealand Rugby Commercial, an entity that manages the commercial aspects of the All Blacks. Silver Lake increased its stake in NZR Commercial from 5.71% to 7.5% in 2023.
NFL legend Tom Brady
Nic Antaya/UFL/Getty
Outside tech execs and billionaires, Tom Brady-backed investment firm Knighthead Capital Management was announced this week as the preferred private investor for a minority stake in another Hundred team, the Birmingham Phoenix.
Subject to the deal's completion, Knighthead will acquire a 49% stake in the team, at a reported value of £40 million (almost $50 million).
The former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback entered into a partnership with the company in 2023 to become a minority owner of Birmingham City Football Club.
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