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 the 2024 season.
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.
