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Make room, Seahawks, Mariners, Sounders, Storm and others. Seattle has a new professional sports team ready to tap into a fan base with strong ties to the region’s tech community.
The Seattle Orcas revealed their team name on Thursday ahead of plans to compete this summer in the debut season of Major League Cricket. The league aims to bring the second most-watched sport in the world to the U.S.
The Orcas will represent the greater Seattle area, and the Pacific Northwest more broadly, with a name and logo meant to honor the power, intelligence and collaboration of a beloved regional creature. Like other local franchises, the team’s branding includes a splash of green to connect it to the region’s natural surroundings.
Seattle is one of six U.S. cities with a team taking part in MLC’s inaugural season, along with Dallas, San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
The team is backed by a lead investor group of notable names from tech, including: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella; Madrona Venture Group Managing Director S. Soma Somasegar; Icertis co-founder and CEO Samir Bodas; GreatPoint Ventures managing partner Ashok Krishnamurthi; and former Microsoft and Avalara executive Sanjay Parthasarathy.
MLC announced last year that it secured $120 million toward getting professional cricket off the ground.
Somasegar has been dreaming about this day for a long time, and working for four years to bring professional cricket to the U.S. and the Seattle area. In a post on LinkedIn on Thursday, he wrote about growing up in India with no television and listening to cricket matches on a handheld radio as a boy.
“Cricket is THE national sport,” Somasegar wrote. “I don’t think you will find many Indians who are not excited about the game.”
The enthusiasm among Indians and others from cricket-playing nations translates to the Seattle area, where many have come to work in tech. As the industry has boomed with companies such as Microsoft, cricket has taken off as well.
As GeekWire reported in 2019, there are now numerous academies and teams developing young cricket players — predominantly because of their parents who work in tech. The Seattle Thunderbolts, one of 26 Minor League Cricket teams, got off the ground in 2021, backed by tech veterans.
Major League Cricket is sanctioned by USA Cricket, and will feature world-class players competing in Twenty20 cricket, a shortened format in which a typical game is completed in about 2 1/2 hours.
The Orcas are partnering with the Delhi Capitals, a leading franchise in the Indian Premier League and one of the top T20 cricket franchises in the world, to help build the Orcas roster for the inaugural season.
Seattle will not host any matches during the 2023 season, as the Orcas need a suitable facility in which to play. The team, MLC and others in the cricket community have been working to get a 20-acre cricket grounds approved for Marymoor Park in Redmond, Wash., east of Seattle. The facility would host up to 6,000 people.
The King County Council passed a motion of support for the development in February 2022.
Microsoft, meanwhile, is building a world-class cricket pitch in the middle of its new campus in Redmond.
An inaugural MLC season draft will take place this Sunday at Space Center Houston and the league’s inaugural match will be on July 13 at Grand Prairie Stadium near Dallas. The season will run from July 13-30, culminating in a championship match.
Somasegar told GeekWire that he hopes Seattle fans who root for traditionally American sports are as excited as he is about his beloved game coming to the area.
“Your partnership and support is what makes Seattle a great sports hub and why the fan communities here are one of the best in the country,” he said, encouraging fans to “see why there are billions of fans around the world who are crazy about this sport.”
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