Major League Cricket bringing world's best players to Oakland Coliseum
Bats, balls, and wickets: Oakland Coliseum gets Major League Cricket week in June
Major League Cricket announced Wednesday that they are going to bring the best U.S. and world cricket players to the Oakland Coliseum in June for a week of the world's second most-watched sport.
OAKLAND, Calif. - Professional cricket is coming to the Oakland Coliseum this June, Bay Area politicians and cricket officials announced on Wednesday, as part of a revitalization of the stadium many had said was "left for dead."
What we know:
At a news conference, Major League Cricket CEO Johnny Grave, Anand Rajaraman, co-owner of the San Francisco Unicorns, interim Oakland Mayor Kevin Jenkins of Oakland, Alameda County Supervisor David Haubert and Oakland City Council member Rebecca Kaplan all spoke about how excited they were for the June event to begin.
"Cricket is the world's second most popular sport. 2.5 billion fans," Oakland interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins said. "I expect Oaklanders and the Bay Area to come out and fully support this event."
"This is an iconic stadium," Rajaraman said, noting that the Oakland Roots have already brought soccer to the legendary site. "It becomes the only stadium in North America to host the two most popular sports in the world,"
"It's going to have the best players in the United States, the best players from around the world, playing the most exciting format of this sport, the three-hour game," Grave said.
The three-hour game, known as the Twenty-twenty or T20, has become popular as an alternative to the traditional games that can last as long as five days.
Opening game
The San Francisco Unicorns is the Bay Area's first and only professional cricket team. The Unicorns’ opening game of the 2025 Major League Cricket season will be played at the Coliseum on June 12 against the Washington Freedom, with two further home games on June 14 and June 15.
"We've not been able to play in the Bay Area," Rajaraman said. "All of Major League's games have been played in Dallas, Texas because that's where we have a stadium. So it's an exciting day for us. For the first time, we'll be able to play in front of a home crowd."
Nine total matches will take place at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, featuring all six of the Major League Cricket's teams.
Ticket sales & economic boost
Ticket sales begin March 27, 2025 on the League's website here.
City leaders say they look forward to the economic boost the week-long event is expected to bring.
"This is creating jobs on multiple levels, of course the players and the teams as well," Kaplan said. "Revenue that comes back to the city and county."
Originally, Oracle engineer and USA cricket player Sauraubh Netravalkar was supposed to be at the news conference. But he was not in attendance.
Netravalkar helped Team USA win the ICC Men's T20 World Cup against Pakistan – a major sports upset. Though he lives in the Bay Area, Netravalkar plays for Washington Freedom.
Saurabh Netravalkar: USA cricket champion and Oracle software engineer
The United States edged cricket heavyweight Pakistan on Thursday in a Super Over tiebreaker for one of the biggest upsets ever at a Twenty20 World Cup. And one of their star players is Saurabh Netravalkar, a 32-year-old San Mateo software engineer at Oracle.
SF Unicorns CEO David White told KTVU in October 2024 that he planned to play at the historic Coliseum after the A's baseball team left Oakland.
Major League Cricket aficionados have long eyed the Coliseum for a facility that can accommodate the game, which requires a different field setup than baseball.
Dedicated fans
"We're very lucky that it's now available," White told KTVU at the time. "I know cricket fans. I know their passion for the sport. And I know that the 35-minute drive from Fremont to Oakland is not going to be something that's going to stop them."
He said most cricket fans in the Bay Area – many who emigrated from overseas – wake up now at 4 a.m. to watch cricket being played overseas in England, Pakistan and India.
The Unicorns want to capitalize on the fact that there is a major South Asian influence in the Bay Area, especially in Fremont, Cupertino and other parts of Silicon Valley, and many of those are dedicated fans to a sport that is a precursor to baseball.
"We're very confident that we'll get a good following from across the whole Bay Area," he said. "We know that they'll travel to see this."
Right now, the Unicorns play near Dallas, Texas and Raleigh, North Carolina.
Unicorn players live all over the world and only practice together in the weeks leading up to a tournament.
The Unicorns, who formed in 2023, take their team name as a direct nod to a rare Silicon Valley startup.
East Bay leaders said they were thrilled to be hosting a major sport at the Coliseum, especially after the Oakland Raiders football team, the Golden State Warriors basketball team and the A's baseball team have all left Oakland.
Haubert added that the Coliseum is such a "perfect location" and cricket is such an "exciting sport."
"This is just the beginning," Haubert said.
The Team :
In its sophomore season of Major League Cricket, the San Francisco Unicorns signed international cricket superstar Pat Cummins and a roster of world-renowned stars, including Finn Allen, Matthew Short, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Matt Henry, and 2019 Cricket World Cup champion Liam Plunkett. The team, led by U.S. all-rounder and standout captain Corey Anderson, reached the 2024 Championship final.
In addition to playing at the Oakland Coliseum, the 2025 season will take place at Major League Cricket’s flagship venue, Grand Prairie Stadium in Grand Prairie, Texas, and Broward County Stadium in Lauderhill, Florida.
The other five Major League Cricket teams are the Los Angeles Knight Riders, the Seattle Orcas, the Texas Super Kings, the Washington (D.C.) Freedom, and MI New York.