The 3rd edition of Major League Cricket kicked off today at the Oakland Coliseum in California with a thrilling match between the San Francisco Unicorns and Washington Freedom. Among the many international stars, Sanjay Krishnamurthi was the showstopper with a 36 off 20. He came in at number 4 after Jake Fraser McGurk got out and didn’t take long to get into his groove. He struggled a bit at first but really found his rhythm against Rachin Ravindra and hit him for 4 sixes in a row.
Sanjay, 22, from Bengaluru has always dreamed of being a cricketer like many kids in India. He joined a local cricket academy, played zonal matches and even represented his state at U16 level. Sanjay was born in the US but his family moved to Karnataka from Arizona in 2011 and he still holds US citizenship.
With so much competition for a spot in the Indian team, Sanjay made a smart move when he was invited to trial with Major League Cricket in 2019 when it was new. He shared that he has an OCI card which prevented him from playing for Karnataka.
To play for India he would need to give up his US citizenship which is a complicated process. “I always wanted to play for India since I started cricket but I knew it wouldn’t be easy with so many other talented players. Plus being an OCI card holder meant I couldn’t play for Karnataka after they enforced new rules,” he told the Times of India.
After the camp in Mumbai he ended up staying back in the US due to COVID. In 2021 he made his ODI debut for the US when his teammate Aaron Jones got injured during a tri-series in Oman. He has played 14 ODIs and 9 T20Is for the US and scored 255 and 90 respectively.
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At MLC he has played 10 matches including today’s game and scored 205 runs at a strike rate of 142.36 with a half century. He’s got talent and the future looks bright for him and he could really help grow cricket in the US.
