Uber's CEO is playing games in India

Hey. It’s Saritha in Bangalore. Last week, Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi swung a bat around with drivers and colleagues in India, getting in on t [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hey. It’s Saritha in Bangalore. Last week, Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi swung a bat around with drivers and colleagues in India, getting in on the trend of American tech CEOs embracing cricket. But first... Three things you need to know today: - Expedia plans to [eliminate 1,500 jobs]( - Supreme Court fears “landmines” in [free-speech debate]( - Apple and Tesla veterans are [helping Japan design AI chips]( Bigger than Bollywood Iran-born Khosrowshahi was indulging in a centuries-old pastime that billions of people enjoy. The curious thing now is whether cricket might have legs Stateside, and whether tech leaders like him might help usher it into the US mainstream. The Uber Technologies Inc. CEO joined one of two teams made up of staff and the service’s drivers, as they battled in New Delhi’s Gurgaon suburbs. Playing the sport for the first time, he pledged to make the match an annual event, and he got off to a fast start by hitting a ball to the boundary within his first few tries with the bat. It’s no accident that Khosrowshahi is going to such lengths to curry favor in the country, as India is one of Uber’s biggest potential growth markets. On the other hand, there’s a legion of India-born CEOs in the US, from Adobe Inc. and Alphabet Inc. to Microsoft Corp., who have never relinquished their abiding love for the sport. Along with waves of Indian engineer transplants to the US, these influential figures are helping to spread the word about their baseball-adjacent passion. There’s now [a Major League Cricket in the US](, with six franchises, backed by a consortium that includes investors such as Satya Nadella, Shantanu Narayen and former WhatsApp executive Neeraj Arora. The MLC’s profitability depends not so much on live audiences in the US. Its not-so-secret advantage is in India, where much of the 1.4 billion population are cricket fanatics that can usually be found glued to their phone or TV screens to catch the action, wherever in the world it may be. A big test will come in June as the T20 World Cup, the world’s largest cricket tournament, is hosted across several US cities and the Caribbean. New York will get to experience the most heated rivalry of all, India versus Pakistan, and we’ll all get a better sense of how deep the appetite for the game is. Tickets for that match, at a stadium that hosts 34,000, are [200 times oversubscribed](. All those millions of South Asia emigrés that the tech industry brought over will show up for sure. Nadella told Bloomberg at Davos he wants to attend if he’s able to get tickets. Other familiar global CEOs of Indian origin will doubtlessly be spotted in the stadium that day. To them, this is bigger than anything Bollywood could produce. Question is whether, say, NFL fans could be enticed to tune in during their offseason. Unlike South Korea, which started off exporting tech before growing influential in film, music and even cosmetics, India is a budding power in the global tech race that hasn’t yet built up much cultural sway. Its mega stars with countless fans at home could barely make a dent in Hollywood, with the rare exception of Priyanka Chopra. Now, cricket could truly extend India’s soft power. Back at the Gurgaon stadium, Khosrowshahi’s glory was short-lived. Adopting a batting stance that was more baseball than cricket, he was bowled out moments after his heroic hit. He would go on to hang out with the drivers, sipping milky Indian chai and chomping on savory, potato-and-pea-filled samosas. As a cricketer, he has a way to go, but as a global CEO seeking to worm his way into Indian hearts and wallets, he couldn't have chosen a better way.—[Saritha Rai](mailto:srai33@bloomberg.net) [Sign up]( for Bloomberg's Business of Sports newsletter for the context you need on the collision of power, money and sports. The big story The Online Harms Act, an online safety law in Canada, was introduced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government on Monday in efforts to try to compel internet companies to [actively regulate and remove harmful content](. Firms such as Meta and Google’s YouTube will be affected, as these offer live-streamed video, social media platforms and user-uploaded adult content, all of which are covered by the new law. One to watch Denver Riggleman, founder of Riggleman Information and Intelligence Group and former Republican Congressman, joins Ed Ludlow to discuss the role of AI deepfakes in the upcoming presidential election. 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