On august 25, 2025, on the Beyond23 cricket Podcast with former Australian captain Michael Clarke, Lalit Modi expressed a blunt view regarding cricket’s future in the United States. He remarked that having major indian stars like virat kohli or ms dhoni is essential for any serious traction in the American market. He said, “I called my friend chris Gayle. ‘Chris, I see you in Texas. What’s the atmosphere like?’ He said, ‘My brother it’s dead’. There was nobody in the stadium. They think that cricket going to the olympics is going to fuel America. It ain’t happening now, this decade, next decade, next 50 years.”
Modi further emphasized that expatriate fans will only pay to watch big-name players:
“As a businessman, I am going to see somebody called Virat Singh playing against Dushyant Singh… I’ve never heard of them. All that I want is to watch Virat Kohli... mahendra singh Dhoni…” So while he didn’t use the exact words "Without dhoni, kohli there is no chance even for 50 years" verbatim, his sentiment is unmistakable: cricket in the US is unlikely to grow without global icons like dhoni and Kohli—and likely not anytime in the next 50 years.
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