Sachin Tendulkar Returns to the Gaming Pitch, This Time as an Investor in Hitwicket

Sachin Tendulkar has already had a second innings in cricket gaming. In 2017, he partnered with JetSynthesys to launch Sachin Saga Cricket Champions, a mobile game built around his career. Four years later, he invested $2 million in the Pune-based digital entertainment company. The game had crossed 20 million downloads, according to the company at the time.

Now, Tendulkar is back in the gaming business, with another bet on cricket and another company looking to build a global gaming franchise around the sport.

The former India captain has acquired a significant minority stake in Metasports Interactive, the company behind mobile cricket strategy game Hitwicket. He will also be its brand ambassador and feature as a playable character in the game. The Hyderabad-based company wants to grow Hitwicket's user base from over 20 million across 120 countries to 100 million downloads in the next three years.

The financial details of Tendulkar's investment, including the amount and the company's valuation, have not been disclosed. An Economic Times report, citing sources familiar with the transaction, said the investment component was nominal relative to his endorsement fees, with the broader arrangement involving cash and equity.

The distinction matters. This is both an investment and a commercial association, and the value of having Tendulkar's name attached to a cricket game is not difficult to understand. What remains to be seen is how much of that recognition translates into paying users.

There is, however, a difference between the game Tendulkar backed earlier and the one he is joining now. Sachin Saga was built around recreating the experience of playing cricket, with Tendulkar himself at the centre. Hitwicket takes a different route. Players manage teams, select players, develop squads and make decisions about batting and bowling strategies. The emphasis is less on how well one can play a cover drive and more on whether one knows when to play it.

"Hitwicket stood out to me for how it brings the strategic thinking behind cricket into the game," Tendulkar said in a statement. "Cricket has always involved reading the bowler, assessing the field and deciding the right approach for every ball. Hitwicket captures that decision-making, going beyond reflexes to recreate how a cricketer thinks in the middle."

For the founders, Kashyap Reddy and Keerti Singh, this understanding of cricket is central to the product. Reddy told Moneycontrol that the company had initially approached Tendulkar around six months ago to explore a collaboration. The discussions eventually led to an investment.

The company wants to use his experience to introduce more detail into the game. Reddy told Moneycontrol that the team was interested in understanding nuances such as how grass growing in a particular direction could affect the friction of the ball. It is also considering introducing different versions of Tendulkar as a team mentor or strategist, reflecting the changes in his playing style over his 24-year international career.

"We have a wide range of users, some of whom go deep into the technicalities of cricket. Being able to capture the mind of a champion within the game would enhance their experience," Reddy said.

The business of keeping players hooked

Founded in 2020, Metasports says Hitwicket has more than 20 million users across 120 countries. The company, as it claims, reported a 100 per cent increase in revenue over the six months preceding the announcement. Players spend an average of 51 minutes a day on the game, according to the company.

These are useful engagement numbers, but they do not tell the entire business story. The company has not disclosed its revenue, profitability, monthly active users or the proportion of players who spend money on the game.

Reportedly, the company is now considering subscriptions for its core users and expanding opt-in advertising. More than half its revenue, as per several media reports, comes from outside India, with the UK, US and Australia among its largest overseas markets.

The business model is worth watching. A free-to-play game needs a large enough base of users, but it also needs a portion of them to keep spending on upgrades, in-game purchases and other features. Downloads can bring players through the door; retention and spending determine whether they stay.

Metasports has already secured external capital to fund this growth. In April 2026, it received $20 million in user acquisition financing from London-based Metica. The money is intended to support marketing and customer acquisition in international markets. The arrangement also gives Metasports access to Metica's technology to improve in-game monetisation.

This was structured user acquisition financing, rather than a conventional equity funding round. The company had earlier raised $8 million from investors including Prime Venture Partners and Singapore-based Horizon Ventures. Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle is also an investor.

The timing is significant. India's cricket gaming market is changing. Following the restrictions on real-money gaming, free-to-play and skill-based games have been looking to build businesses around engagement rather than cash contests. Hitwicket is part of this shift, competing with titles such as Dream Cricket, Real Cricket and World Cricket Championship.

It is not an empty playing field. Dream Sports, which built Dream11 into one of India's largest fantasy sports businesses, has also expanded into cricket gaming through Dream Game Studios, now known as Dream Cricket. Krafton owns Nautilus Mobile, the developer of Real Cricket, while Nazara Technologies owns Nextwave Multimedia, the studio behind World Cricket Championship.

Hitwicket is betting that strategy and team management can give it a distinct place in this market. Its challenge will be to establish whether this is a sufficiently compelling reason for players to choose it over games they already know.

More than a cricket game?

Metasports' ambitions extend beyond Hitwicket. The company, which was previously known as Hitwicket, changed its name as it began looking at other sports.

If we look at Tendulkar's own investment history, it offers some context for this association. Besides JetSynthesys, he has backed businesses in sectors ranging from used-car retail to technology and digital collectibles. In 2021, he joined Spinny as a strategic investor and brand ambassador. In 2022, he invested in cricket NFT platform Rario.

The pattern is familiar in India's startup ecosystem: a celebrity brings capital, visibility and, in some cases, domain expertise to a young business. But the commercial outcomes depend on the underlying product and the company's ability to build a business beyond the celebrity association.

For Metasports, there is an additional opportunity. Tendulkar is not just a recognisable face being added to a cricket game. His playing experience could inform how the game is developed. Whether that translates into a better product is something players will decide.

A target of 100 million downloads is a sizeable jump from the current 20 million. Tendulkar may help get Hitwicket noticed. Getting 80 million more people to download it, keep playing and spend money on it is a different innings altogether.