In December, India will see something it never has before: Big Bash League cricket on its own soil. The Australiana league will open its 2026–2027 season in Chennai, making it the first foreign franchise league to play in the country.
It’s just one of the many signals that India is pulling cricket away from the traditional old guard and becoming its new leading powerhouse.
The genteel sport of cricket—the second most-popular game in the world behind soccer—has been historically dominated by two countries. First, there is England, its birthplace; next, Australia, one of the game’s earliest adopters, which has won more international honors than any other country, including six ODI World Cups.
But India’s U.S.-style cricket tournament, the Indian Premier League, has quickly caught up.
The IPL has evolved into the most popular, most commercially dominant tournament in world cricket. In late July, a report from global investment bank Houlihan Lokey valued the IPL business at $20.6 billion, up 11.4% year-over-year, and second only to the NFL in per-match brand value. Since its launch in 2008, the IPL has also generated billions of dollars in private investment—including from Aditya Birla Group, a multinational Indian conglomerate backed by Blackstone.
