Why Satya Nadella and other tech titans are betting on cricket to become a new American pastime 

The founders and investors in Major League Cricket are tapping into the sport’s diaspora to create a new world order for T20 cricket.

Cricket may be the second most-watched sport in the world, but witnessing it being played in front of 14,000 fans on Long Island is nonetheless peculiar. The United States is not a cricketing nation, to put it mildly. Cricket didn’t even register on a recent Gallup poll of Americans’ favorite sports to watch, lagging behind bowling, wrestling, and rodeo.

But on a Saturday in early June, batsmen and bowlers from the Netherlands and South Africa faced off in a group stage match of the T20 Men’s Cricket World Cup, co-hosted by the U.S. for the first time, along with the West Indies.