Knight Riders expands into US through investment in Major League Cricket
Dec 01, 2020
New Delhi [India], December 1 : American Cricket Enterprises has announced that the Knight Riders Group, owners of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR), has agreed to a long-term investment in the future of American cricket as they become stakeholders in Major League Cricket.
Kolkata Knight Riders are two-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions (2012, 2014). Following their 2014 IPL win, the Knight Riders became owners of the Trinidad & Tobago T20 franchise in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) in 2015. Since then, the Trinbago Knight Riders have gone on to win the CPL Championship four times in the last six seasons, including a record-setting unbeaten championship season in 2020.
This investment by the Knight Riders Group, which is led by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, along with Juhi Chawla and her husband Jay Mehta, is part of a strategic long-term investment in the future of cricket in the United States.
Shah Rukh Khan, commenting on the long-term agreement, in a statement, said: "For several years now, we have been expanding the Knight Riders brand globally and closely watching the potential for T20 cricket in the USA. We are convinced that Major League Cricket has all the pieces in place to execute on its plans and we look forward to making our partnership an enormous success in the coming years."
Venky Mysore, the CEO of KKR and Red Chillies Entertainment said, "We feel fortunate to have been consistently recognized as one of the best franchises in T20 cricket and have become one of the fastest growing sports brands in the world. As T20 cricket expands internationally, we are flattered by the regular inbound requests to play a major role in growing the sport abroad. We have had a keen interest in the developments in the United States and our expansion into the U.S. is consistent with our long-term strategy. We look forward to the new challenge of building cricket in the world's most sophisticated sports and media market and we believe that we can bring a huge amount of expertise to help make Major League Cricket realise the potential that it undoubtedly has."
Sameer Mehta and Vijay Srinivasan of American Cricket Enterprises and Major League Cricket commented, "We are delighted to partner with the Knight Riders Group in this historic partnership. By adding the Knight Riders Group to our family of world-class and diverse investors, this investment into the future of Major League Cricket is a huge validation of our vision for the new league, and we are particularly excited to have such an iconic cricketing brand onboard with us.
Major League Cricket will feature top international players from the U.S. and around the world, underpinned by a focus on pathways to develop a homegrown player pool for USA Cricket and the league.
