SAN FRANCISCO, Ca. (June 4, 2024) — The San Francisco Unicorns has announced that Australian cricket superstar and captain Pat Cummins has signed a long-term deal to play Major League Cricket (MLC) for the franchise from this season until 2027.
Cummins has won the ICC Cricket World Cup twice, the T20 World Cup once, and led Australia to the World Test Championship. The 31-year-old ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year and Wisden’s Leading Cricketer in the World for 2023 is already lauded as an all-time great fast bowler and will be a game-changing addition to the Unicorns roster for the 2024 season.
In an MLC first, the fast bowler, who also captains IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad, has signed to the Unicorns on a long-term contract, offering the team and league a significant vote of confidence as it looks to build out the franchise’s popularity with success on the pitch and the development of its cricket stadium in the Bay Area.
With pace bowling expertise set to complement the Unicorn’s fast bowling attack, which already features international class in Pakistan’s Haris Rauf and New Zealand’s Matt Henry, Cummins has shown himself to be a handy lower-order batter in the short format of T20, once holding the IPL record for the fastest to fifty runs, taking him just 14 balls.
“I’m very excited to join the Unicorns ahead of the 2024 season,” said Cummins. “MLC is developing at a rapid rate, and the US market potential is huge for cricket.”
The Unicorns are co-owned by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Anand Rajamaran and Venky Harinarayan, who have shared a number of successful tech ventures, most notably founding and selling database technology provider Junglee, which was sold to Amazon in 1998 for $250m.
“While cricket is integral to my involvement, the global network and long-term possibilities offered by the owners specifically, and Silicon Valley more broadly presented a unique opportunity for me and my life beyond cricket,” added Cummins.
“Anand [Rajaraman] and Venky [Harinarayan] operate in a business world that excites me enormously and I can’t wait to be a part of it.”
This latest signing comes after MLC recently received List A status from the world cricket governing body, the ICC. The league is now regarded as an official T20 tournament, with playing records now counted towards official format statistics.
“Pat Cummins has been one of the world’s great players across all formats for a number of years now and we are thrilled to welcome him to the Unicorns family,” said San Francisco Unicorns co-owner Anand Rajaraman.
“Pat’s commitment to a long-term contract demonstrates his faith in our vision for growing cricket in the Bay Area and more broadly across the US. We’re confident that, both on and off the pitch, he will bring a high caliber of performance that will help us achieve those goals.”
The 2024 Major League Cricket season will commence on July 5, with San Francisco Unicorn’s first match coming on July 7, when they take on the LA Knight Riders at Grand Prairie Stadium, in Grand Prairie, TX.
Tickets for all matches are available now at tickets.majorleaguecricket.com.
For more information, visit SFUnicorns.com.
Click here for San Francisco Unicorns team images.
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About The San Francisco Unicorns
The San Francisco Unicorns launched in 2023 as one of six founding members of Major League Cricket (MLC), a ground-breaking T20 competition bringing some of world cricket’s biggest names to the USA for the first time. The inaugural roster includes Australian international stars Matthew Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk, New Zealand’s Finn Allen and Matt Henry, and 2019 Cricket World Cup champion Liam Plunkett. Cricket Victoria, the governing body for the sport in the Australian state of Victoria, serves as the Unicorns’ high-performance partner.
In partnership with MLC, the Unicorns plan to build a world-class home for the team in the Bay Area, which will seat up to 15,000 people and be capable of hosting major international cricket events. The team’s primary investors are Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan, who are founding partners of data-driven venture firm rocketship.vc, and who previously founded US-focused database technology provider Junglee, which sold to Amazon in 1998 for $250m.
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Ryan Bailey: ryan@redknotcomms.com
