One of India’s most distinguished cricket athletes is making his way to the United States.
Ravichandran Ashwin is set to become part of the San Francisco Unicorns for the forthcoming season of Major League Cricket. Ashwin represents the initial erstwhile Indian national team player to compete in the U.S. league, which was established in 2023.
This marks a significant occasion for the sport in both nations, particularly considering that cricket will make its comeback at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles following a 128-year hiatus. Ashwin, aged 39, recently participated in a showcase match in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, which hinted at the promising nature of this transition.
“Observing the enthusiastic welcome generated by the Asian community for that game merely revealed to me the immense promise American cricket holds,” Ashwin conveyed to ESPN on Saturday. “It’s truly thrilling.”
Ashwin stands as one of the most acclaimed athletes in the annals of international cricket. The bowler is positioned eighth in Test wickets. He holds the second position in India’s history for this achievement and contributed to the nation’s triumph in the 2011 World Cup, marking its inaugural victory subsequent to an initial success in 1983.
Ashwin also commands a sizable fan base on social media, with 5.3 million Instagram adherents, surpassing Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (2.2 million) and New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge (2 million).
Ashwin is accompanied by other prominent international cricket stars such as erstwhile South African captain Faf du Plessis, former West Indies luminary Kieron Pollard, and New Zealand’s Trent Boult, all of whom have competed in America’s MLC. Ashwin was originally slated to participate in Australia’s Big Bash League but was excluded due to a knee injury that necessitated an operation.
“This will be the initial instance of his participation in a prominent international league outside of India,” MLC CEO Johnny Grave informed ESPN. “And for us to be the first league to entice an athlete of such distinction is a demonstration of how the league has evolved over the past three years since it was inaugurated in 2023.”
The six-team league is slated to hold its games at venues in Texas, Los Angeles, and Oakland, with the championship match on July 18 at the Oakland Coliseum. It is the T20 format of cricket, which is approximately three hours in duration and has become widely embraced globally.
A semifinal match between India and England in the recent T20 World Cup attracted an audience of 320 million viewers across digital and online streaming channels, as per the data from the International Cricket Council. For context, this year’s Super Bowl had a mean viewership of 125.6 million viewers.
The interest in cricket has expanded in the United States, which jointly hosted the 2024 T20 World Cup. India’s victory against Pakistan attracted 34,028 fans in New York’s Nassau County, representing the highest turnout for a cricket match in the U.S. Team USA also defeated Pakistan that year in a significant surprise victory.Ashwin observed that other players with Indian heritage or who represented youth national squads, such as USA captain Monank Patel and Harmeet Singh, have featured in MLC. Ashwin has noted the enrollment figures of Americans who have joined his cricket academy, both onsite and online, an indicator of the increasing fascination with the sport.
And that was the primary impetus behind his choice to compete.
“The fact that there is such considerable enthusiasm from youngsters and from many individuals who have relocated and established themselves in America, demonstrating such keen interest in the sport, I merely desired to attend and witness firsthand the atmosphere upon our participation in the MLC,” Ashwin stated.
There is also increasing business engagement from prominent U.S. financial backers. As reported by ESPNcricinfo, a consortium headed by Kal Somani, and featuring the proprietor of the Denver Broncos, Rob Walton, completed the acquisition of the Rajasthan Royals for $1.6 billion. The Royals are one of the teams in the Indian Premier League, the exceptionally profitable T20 league that disposed of its broadcast and digital rights for a total of $6.02 billion in 2022, according to the BBC. That deal precedes cricket’s incorporation into the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, marking the initial occasion the discipline will be showcased in the Games since 1900.
“All of this information disseminated over recent years has simply signified that cricket is now gaining recognition among Americans,” Grave remarked. “And certainly, when we engage in discussions with business partners, leaders, countries, and cities, people now possess some familiarity with cricket. It’s undeniably not an unfamiliar game here.”
One of the factors enabling Ashwin’s participation in the MLC is due to his withdrawal from both international cricket and the IPL, in which he featured from 2009 to 2025. And he is convinced his involvement arrives at a crucial juncture for the sport.Traditionally, the Test format, which can extend for five days, has been the sport’s pinnacle format. However, the condensed T20 style, comparable to a baseball contest with 120 pitches per team, has fostered the sport’s expansion, aided by numerous global leagues.
Ashwin expressed that he is of the opinion that the era of nations competing for multiple weeks across several versions of the sport “is going to be exceedingly challenging.” And with the forthcoming Olympic Games in two years’ time, one of the world’s most prominent sports could be poised for further expansion.
“We are positioned at a pivotal moment for the game where it is striving relentlessly to achieve widespread international adoption for this specific athletic pursuit,” he asserted. “So I think there will be considerable latitude over the coming decade in terms of the extent of public engagement and the number of individuals keen to participate.”