MARGATE/FL – USA: Cricket in America has received a major shot in the arm with the arrival of the Knight Riders franchise.
CEO of Red Chillies Entertainment the owners of the Knight Riders brand, Venky Mysore said on MaqTv Tuesday that the brand has come into America and will be taking part in the USA Cricket Major League tournament.
According to Mysore: “We are happy to be involved. We have a major sports brand and the people there reached out to us. We were interested and then got sold on the idea after we saw the business model.
“We will be taking the LA franchise but more than that we will be part owners of the league. In the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) where we own the franchise Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) we run that and only that assisting in making the league a success. However, now we have a stake in the league as well and all owners will have a stake which is good.”
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The highly respected Mysore has been included on the American Cricket Entertainment (ACE) board who owns the league. “I am on the board and will lend my experience to the set up.” He explained that the move by the Knight Riders brand was done to as a result as their development model. “When you look at IPL it is condensed within a two-month period. Then you look at CPL and it goes for about six weeks. I told the owners that in order to take their brand forward, they needed to go worldwide because if you own five or six franchises then you will have cricket being all the time around the year. It means that the brand will be out there all the time, your fan base will grow, and economically it will work out well for us.”
Red Chillies Entertainment owns the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) in the CPL, and the Capetown Knight Riders in South Africa. They will now be the owners of the LA Knight Riders in the US Major League. In an immediate response young Florida cricketer Zishawn Qureshi said this was great news. “We are so happy that this world class brand can come into America. I have gotten all my opportunities to play with international cricketers at the US Open T20 tournament and now we can add the fact that the Major League will also bring in international players. We are thankful that the Knight Riders brand is coming to the US as this in addition to the US Open will give us the cricketers that international exposure.”
The tournament is expected to be played for the first time in June/July 2022. “As I have told the other board members, there is an old saying that you only have once chance to make a first impression. So let’s take our time and make sure that this is done properly. That time around June/July will be the summertime and it will be great to host this tournament. It means that it comes in between the IPL and the CPL which will work fine for the brand.
