Major League Cricket, featuring the San Francisco Unicorns, coming to Oakland Coliseum this June – ABC7 Bay Area

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — A breath of new life is coming to the Oakland Coliseum this summer.
World-class Major League Cricket games will be played there for the first time.
The San Francisco Unicorns, one of the league's founding teams, will finally have home-field advantage.
Despite the Oakland A's following the Oakland Raiders in leaving this iconic stadium, the second largest sport in the world will be taking their place this summer.
MLC leaders say this will bring in some of the best cricket players in the world.
This means the Oakland Coliseum will become the first stadium in North America to host the two most popular sports in the world, soccer and cricket, as the Oakland Roots just played their first soccer game at the Coliseum over the weekend.
MORE: Historic night for Oakland Roots with sell-out crowd at 1st home game at Oakland Coliseum
Major League Cricket was only launched two years ago and the San Francisco Unicorns was one of the six founding teams.
The Unicorns have played the first two seasons but both have been played in Dallas and North Carolina because up until now, they didn't have a stadium available here locally.
Come June, the Unicorns, along with the five other U.S. teams will play a full week of matches here.
Anand Rajaraman, a co-owner of the Unicorns, calls this a "dream come true" to play on the country's biggest baseball field after other teams have left the area.
"I'm sad that those teams have left our area as a sports fan in the Bay Area but I'm also thankful for the opportunity that it gives us to come and play here and now cricket joins the rich tapestry of Bay Area sports, is the way I look at it," Rajaraman said.
MORE: A's say goodbye to Oakland with emotional final win at Coliseum
Major League Cricket CEO Johnny Grave says this comes at a pivotal time for the sport of cricket which is being added to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
They believe this gives them a unique opportunity to help build up the U.S. national team.
"For us, it's just huge to be able to come to such an established sporting and iconic venue to bring cricket," Grave said. "It's going to be a big statement for the sport, I think. We have a TV audience globally of 100 million so people are going to be really focused on Oakland and the Bay Area come June."
Nine total matches will be played at the Oakland Coliseum featuring all six teams.
The San Francisco Unicorns will kick things off by playing the Washington Freedom on June 12.

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