Sonu Nigam has spent a career discovering and lifting new voices. His next platform for emerging talent won’t be a recording studio - it will be a team. One of India’s most celebrated playback singers has become the owner of the Kolkata Hawks in the Global e-Cricket Premier League (GEPL), making him the first name from mainstream music to take an ownership stake in the league.

For Sonu Nigam, the move is less about cricket and more about the idea of a stage. “Music and sports have always found ways to bring people together, and GEPL feels like a natural extension of that. I am excited to own the Kolkata Hawks and be part of a platform that is redefining how young India engages with cricket. My aim is to build a team that gives emerging talent, a stage to be seen and heard,” he said while adding, “My aim is to build a team that gives emerging talent a stage to be seen and heard.”

His entry is a first for the league in more ways than one. It marks GEPL’s first ownership stake from the world of mainstream music and entertainment, placing a legendary cultural voice alongside a roster of owners drawn so far from business, investing and sport - among them Nikhil Kamath, Peyush Bansal, Suniel Shetty and Sara Tendulkar. For a figure long associated with launching new talent, the appeal is a platform pointed squarely at India’s young, digitally native audiences.

The league itself sits at the meeting point of music, cricket, esports and entertainment. Powered by Real Cricket™ and launched by JetSynthesys, the expanded eight-team GEPL Season 3 runs 1^st August to 9^th August at the Jairaj Sports & Convention Centre, Pune, broadcast across Star Sports and JioHotstar. Season 2 drew over 174 million impressions - the scale of audience Sonu Nigam’s new team will now play to.