Microsoft, Adobe CEOs likely to join US cricket league

Mumbai: Less than a week after American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) and Shah Rukh Khan-led Kolkata Knight Riders announced a significant long-term partnership to develop and launch Major League Cricket (MLC) in the United States, more details of high-profile investors are pouring in.

According to a Times of India report, Satya Nadella, the Indian-American business executive and the CEO at Microsoft, along with Shantanu Narayen, another Indian-American CEO at Adobe Inc are coming on board too.

While Khan’s Knight Riders franchise will be based out of Los Angeles, Nadella is about to sign on the dotted line to settle for Seattle, home to America’s tech industry, where Microsoft operates from.

The 50-year-old Nadella, a self-confessed fan of ML Jaisimha, and a cricketer himself when he studied at the Hyderabad Public School, is busy working on a state-of-the-art cricket oval at Redmond, Washington.

Narayen, another Hyderabad-based tech executive like Nadella and seven years his elder, is based out of Palo Alto, California, in the Bay Area where ACE is headquartered.

USA Cricket is in the process of co-bidding for a major global ICC event in the 2023-2031 cycle with Cricket West Indies.

The new league is operated by ACE, founded by Vineet Jain and Satyan Gajwani of the Times Group and Vijay Srinivasan and Sameer Mehta of Willow TV.

Images courtesy of (File photos) and File Photos

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