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More than a decade after the hefty Hollywood exposure from Million Dollar Arm, MLB is taking another big swing at connecting more deeply with India and cricket fans.
The league said on Wednesday it has struck a deal for Indian cricket star Suryakumar Yadav to serve as a league ambassador. Beginning with MLB All-Star Game events this weekend in Philadelphia, Suryakumar will participate in a series of fan engagement initiatives, appear in original content, and appear at various MLB events—all with an eye toward bridging the gap between cricket and baseball.
MLB also has completed a rights renewal with Indian media outlet JioStar, in which select regular season games, the All-Star Game, postseason, and World Series will be shown in the world’s most populous country.
A Different Approach
This is hardly the first time that MLB has sought to tap into the massive opportunity in and around India. The 2014 Million Dollar Arm movie, starring Jon Hamm, was a feature film depiction of a real-life contest in India organized by sports agent J.B. Bernstein to unearth baseball talent among cricketers.
The two players that emerged from that first contest, Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, were signed by the Pirates. Neither player, however, advanced beyond low-level minor-league play.
In September 2024, Kumar Rocker became the first player of Indian descent to reach the majors, when he debuted for the Rangers. Raised primarily in Georgia after his maternal grandparents immigrated from India, Rocker is still with Texas.
Blue Jays prospect Arjun Nimmala, meanwhile, is a first-generation Indian-American, as his parents immigrated from India and he played cricket extensively as a child. The former first-round pick now ranks as MLB’s No. 46 prospect and is currently playing for Double-A New Hampshire.
The latest MLB initiatives are focused on a more traditional and grassroots-oriented fan development strategy, and also build upon the league opening an office in New Delhi in 2019. MLB additionally recently struck a strategic deal with Rise Worldwide Limited, which manages Suryakumar, to aid the growth of baseball in India.
Suryakumar, widely known by his initials SKY, carries an extensive social media presence with more than 20 million followers on Instagram and 4.4 million more on X. Since making his professional debut in 2010, Suryakumar has won several league and national-level titles, and is a two-time ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year.
On a local level, the Yankees-controlled YES Network also recently struck a rights deal to show matches from Major League Cricket’s MI New York.
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