When Pat Cummins signed with the San Francisco Unicorns in June of last year, he spoke about the appeal of a possible life after cricket in Silicon Valley, diving into tech and the world of venture capital investing alongside the team's owners.
"MLC is developing at a rapid rate, and the US market potential is huge for cricket," Cummins said at the time. "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.
"Anand [Rajaraman] and Venky [Harinarayan, SF Unicorns' co-owners who are also Silicon Valley entrepreneurs] operate in a business world that excites me enormously and I can't wait to be a part of it."
Plenty of athletes come here because it offers glamour as the world's largest consumer market, or because it offers a better tax environment for wealthy individuals, or because they're looking for one last big payday on their names before they hang 'em up. But Cummins still has plenty left in the tank and will probably be a fixture in the Australian setup through at least 2027. Major League Cricket has never really lacked for star power, but signing Australia's world champion test and ODI captain and one of the premier fast bowlers on Earth was a big deal and got attention from the Indian and Australian press.
It didn't move the needle at all here.
There are a few reasons for this: for one, it’s old hat for Australians to play in franchise leagues - it was Cummins’ third such competition of the calendar year. His on-field performance wasn't up to his standard, either, but he also doesn't have a lot of crossover appeal outside of Australia to break into the mainstream. Think Tom Brady: enormously famous in his home country where his sport is huge, but couldn't get picked out of a lineup overseas. Cummins probably also doesn't fire up interest among casual cricket fans in MLC's bedrock demographic in the Indian diaspora, a group that, like any immigrant community, will get most excited for one of their own.
I think you can see where I'm going with this.
Over the weekend, Jagran's Priyanka Joshi reported that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma could be put to pasture by India's ODI selectors after they compete in a white ball tour of Australia this October, effectively ending their international careers and costing them a desired appearance at the 2027 Cricket World Cup. According to her reporting, remaining eligible for selection for 2027 would require them to participate in this year’s Vijay Hazare Trophy, India's provincial List A competition - something that sounds reasonable until one considers that Rohit hasn't done that since 2018 and Kohli hasn't done it since 2010. The implication in the reporting is that they may be reluctant to do this in their late 30s, so the BCCI is preparing to give them the Jimmy Anderson Treatment just in case.
If Virat and Rohit's international careers are over, the door isn't necessarily wide open, but it might at least be unlocked for an opportunity akin to the one David Beckham presented to MLS when his five-year deal was announced in January 2007.
Part of the challenge is the restrictions placed on Indian cricketers as it relates to where they compete. If I were to rank the words in "Board of Control for Cricket in India" by order of priority the BCCI places on them, "Control" would rank first, and "Cricket" would rank second (at best). It is the standing policy of the BCCI that any men's player wishing to play in another franchise league must retire from all forms of Indian cricket, including the IPL, to get the OK. It is the only ICC Full Member board with this policy. It's a "no player is bigger than the program" stance taken to its most extreme, but if the player in question is already retired from all forms of international cricket, it becomes less of an obstacle: a bidder just has to beat the money the player makes in the IPL or provide equivalent value through means other than salary, possibly up to and including a piece of the league.
That's exactly what MLS did to lure Beckham 18+ years ago. Under the then-brand new Designated Player rule, Beckham made $6.1 million in salary but counted for just $400,000 against the $2.1 million MLS salary cap. That salary still represented a steep pay cut from his Real Madrid contract, so the Galaxy offered him a percentage of club revenue on top of it, correctly betting that revenue would rise sharply with Beckham in the fold. For reference, Kohli made roughly $2.1 million in the IPL in 2025 with the champion Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and Rohit made approximately $1.9 million with Mumbai. MLC's salary cap was $1.15 million at launch.
But the real kicker, and what made Beckham's deal a massive windfall for his post-playing aspirations, was the right to purchase a Major League Soccer franchise in any market other than New York for $25 million if he completed the five-year contract - a number which MLS hoped would be a bargain, and they were right. Beckham cashed in on that clause to claim Miami about a year before David Tepper paid $325 million to bring an MLS franchise to Charlotte. While it took forever to get off the ground, Inter Miami used the platform Beckham built in 2007 to fulfill the pipe dream of bringing Lionel Messi, the greatest player of my lifetime and probably ever, to American shores. As of this writing, the 38 year old Messi is MLS' leading scorer in 2025, and if you pay Apple $15 a month, you can even watch him play. The GOAT is never washed.
It's hard to overstate the impact of Beckham's signing at the time. It was a thunderbolt in both the soccer and pop culture worlds, a signal that MLS was here to stay and ready to be a major player less than six years after nearly folding the entire league. Beckham raised the profile of MLS and his sport domestically in a way that finally got soccer out of first gear in the United States: the league added six teams between Beckham's signing and his departure, franchise values soared, and the league's TV contract grew by over 1,100% from 2007 to 2015. Having him alongside Landon Donovan helped promote one of America’s brightest talents, and Donovan would later go from prominent to iconic. The pair, along with Irish great Robbie Keane, played in three MLS Cup finals and won two of them. Keane and Donovan tacked on one more title after Beckham left.
Hmm… cultural appeal outside his sport, post-playing aspirations as an investor, celebrity wife… kinda sounds like Virat Kohli, huh? Considering his extensive sports investment portfolio, the chance at owning a cricket franchise in an ascendant league in the US may be too good to pass up.
In MLC's situation, a signing like one (or both) of Ro-Ko would carry enormous risk, but also considerable reward. It would galvanize an Indian community some five million strong across the country to engage more aggressively with the sport in the United States, potentially drawing in others who want to see what all the fuss is about. Both players have huge social media followings that allow for reach to a wider and younger audience, and getting an Indian player to walk away from the IPL - even one who was already done playing for India - would legitimize the United States as a place where cricket needs to be taken seriously. Kohli is obviously the preference of the two, but either would have a significant impact.
So all MLC has to do is break all of its financial rules to let one or two teams score huge on the hopes that a rising tide will lift all boats and not bankrupt half the league in the process. Easy, right?
MLC may not be ready for something of this magnitude. It's still young, not everyone has a stadium yet, and there is still room for more organic growth before they start air-dropping gasoline on the fire, but the clock is ticking: Rohit is 38, Kohli turns 37 in November, and there isn't a deep bench of Indian stars who would even entertain this idea. Jasprit Bumrah's body might betray him before he reaches the same window, and the landscape might change again before we ever get to think about Shubman Gill. But I guess there’s always MS Dhoni, who will keep wicket and bat seventh ‘til he’s 90.
Thanks for reading Stumps & Stripes! If you enjoyed this piece, take a look at my most recent work as I dive into the merits of cricket data viz for the masses.
I’m hitting the busy season of my Big Kid Job, and I hit a bit of a writer’s block with this, but I’m confident I have enough to sustain the momentum of the summer with some fun, simple pieces, and hopefully a couple of more complex, potential actual journalism pieces forthcoming. Later this week, stay tuned for MLC off-season content as I sort out who needs what and how badly over the next nine months. Stay tuned!