The Indian-American tech entrepreneur and owner of a franchise in Major League Cricket on how cricket can grow in the largest sports market in the world
Sanjay Govil institutionalised his passion for cricket by buying Washington Freedom, one of the teams in the newly launched Major League Cricket (MLC) in the US.
Sanjay Govil was born in Canada, but grew up in Delhi and later moved to the US for higher studies. What he carried along with him was his love of cricket, which only deepened despite spending the next few decades in a country that had nothing much to do with the sport. In 2001, Govil founded Infinite Computer Solutions, which became a billion-dollar technology services provider. Six years ago, he started a second company, Zyter, a software venture. This year, the entrepreneur institutionalised his passion for cricket by buying Washington Freedom, one of the teams in the newly launched Major League Cricket (MLC) in the US. In an episode on Sports UnLtd, Govil took us through the journey of cricket and MLC and plans for his cricket team, his third venture. Edited excerpts:
Q. The inclusion of cricket in the 2028 Olympic games in Los Angeles. How excited are you about that?
Cricket, as you know, is followed by a couple of billion people, and there are people who only follow cricket and they don't watch any of those other sports. Including cricket, as part of the Olympics, in my mind, is way overdue. And we're very grateful to the IOC for including cricket in the Olympics in Los Angeles. And the impact is going to be multi-fold. I think as cricket comes in, more and more countries will start having cricket teams to participate in the Olympics. Also, the number of people watching the Olympics is going to go significantly higher because you have all those people who don't watch any other sport but cricket. Third, countries like the US will obviously put a lot of money into cricket infrastructure, schools, cricket development academies etc. So, overall, it’s a big plus. It's one of the frontiers which we had to have to get international recognition.
Q. What role do you think that the MLC, which was launched this year, might have had to play with the inclusion of cricket?