MLC: San Francisco Unicorns are betting on AI to redefine T20 cricket in USA

Time of India

11 hours ago

Venky Harinarayan is a co-owner of the San Francisco Unicorns, a franchise in the Major League Cricket. (Image: Special Arrangement)
Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have been the buzzwords for many years now in different spheres. Cricket has embraced data, belatedly and, perhaps, begrudgingly — now it is the turn of AI.
No surprise that one of the first embracers are Silicon Valley venture capitalists who founded Junglee and Kosmix, which were later acquired by Amazon and Walmart, respectively.
Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan met during their college days in the US and shared a passion for cricket. Venky, who lives in San Francisco, played in school and relied on newspaper clippings sent by his father to stay abreast with the game in the late 80s and early 90s.
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Fast forward two decades and the duo have turned their love for cricket into an entity - having birthed the San Francisco Unicorns in the Major League Cricket (MLC).
"We've tried to build this franchise from first principles, like any startup. And in today's world, trying to build a startup without leveraging the data and making it AI first is not a smart thing to do," said Venky to TimesofIndia.com.
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"I think we are pushing the envelope on a lot of how these things are applied to cricket."
Some of the challenging aspects that are scrutinised with the help of data science and AI are squad construction, auction tactics, domestic draft picks and in-game strategies.
File photo of Jake Fraser McGurk. (ANI)
One player identified by this process was Australia's Jake Fraser-McGurk who was snapped ahead of the second season. Despite his impressive CV in T20 leagues, the 23-year-old only produced 81 runs from seven matches in MLC 2024.
The Unicorns, however, are unperturbed.
"You can keep going deeper and deeper today with AI. For example, if bowler X is bowling to batter Y, the bowling coach can advise what should they be bowling, what length, what the plan is etc. AI can help dramatically with that. Because it can look at all the balls that the batter has played and tell you, 'this is where the strengths are, this is the weakness'," explained Venky.
"What you see right now is that a lot of this has been done by the first level of data analysis.
AI is sort of the next level. And completely new territory."
"I think most teams should be starting that journey at this point because it is going to be opening up a lot of new avenues as to how you play the game. And this is less about our team. This is about pretty much any data science or AI operation. You need to have sort of a harmony between the data and the humans," he elaborated.
After an inaugural season of learnings, the San Francisco Unicorns finished as runners-up in 2024, losing to Washington Freedom in the final.
It was a big achievement for both teams, especially since they're up against four franchises backed by IPL owners. MI New York, Texas Super Kings, LA Knight Riders, and Seattle Orcas benefit from the experience gained through their owners' involvement in various T20 leagues.
We showed up at the stadium, all the IPL teams have giveaways. We have no idea this is what you do! So our guys are running to the local printer, trying to get some flags printed, trying to get some hats
Venky Harinarayan
The challenge of going head-to-head with such legacy franchises intrigues Venky. "To be honest, I actually love that. Because it's always good to compete against the best.
I'm very happy with all the IPL teams as our partners, but from a franchise point of view, especially on the field, you do want to compete with the best," he said before acknowledging their collaboration with Cricket Victoria to ensure they're an efficient unit.
"I feel like we are the new kids on the block and we embrace that. Again, coming from the startup world, we embrace that completely."
"When you start a startup, you're competing with the big giants.
So you have to embrace that. Otherwise you don't belong belong in this world. And to be honest, first year wasn't great. We showed up at the stadium, all the IPL teams have giveaways, have flags. We have no idea this is what you do! So our guys are running to the local printer, trying to get some flags printed, trying to get some hats."
How do you grow cricket in the USA?
Oakland Coliseum will host MLC matches this season, becoming the third venue in the USA's T20 league. (Image credit: X)
That captures one of the challenges for MLC and its six franchises. There have been steady steps with number of matches increasing from 19, 25 to 34 in the upcoming season, with the venues also going from two (Grand Prairie Stadium, Texas and Church Street Park, North Carolina) to three (Grand Prairie; Broward County Stadium in Lauderhiil, Florida and Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California).
There is an overarching test of growing the game in the region while keeping the league competitive.
"We're fairly clear that this is something which is not going to happen overnight. It's going to happen over a period of time, and we have to be patient and willing to keep pushing. We know there's definitely opportunity on the competitive side, there's still a way to go — we have to keep improving," opened up Venky.
"After every season, we reflect on what we can do better, and I'm sure every team does the same.
And when it comes to growing cricket here, that's something we really need to embrace."
"As a startup, the first two years have been especially challenging. We've been focused on getting our own house in order — fielding a competitive product and getting the basics right. But now, heading into season four, after this one, we feel we're at a point where we can begin building real momentum."
"There's so much opportunity.
We've been amazed by the interest — not just in watching cricket, but in playing it. And it's not limited to people who grew up in cricket-playing nations like India. It's also their children and those from other communities. You see this reflected in Bay Area academies — one I visited recently had over 300 kids, and that's just one of many."
"First, we need to solidify the sport within passionate communities, and then expand to those where awareness is still low.
There's a marketing challenge too — many Americans still think of the old, slow format of cricket, with tea breaks and multi-day matches. But T20 is a fast, exciting game that fits the viewing habits here. Once people experience it, they love it, but it takes education."
"Of course, American sports are deeply rooted, so carving out a niche here won't be easy. It's not a simple process. But we have great raw material and encouraging proof points from the first two seasons.
Soccer took a long time to get established here. So, we just have to keep pushing, keep investing, and that's important."
San Francisco Unicorns will get the 2025 MLC season underway against Washington Freedom on June 12 at Oakland Coliseum. A total of 30 matches will be played in the league stage followed by knockouts in Texas, with the season culminating on July 13.