MLC PREVIEW
Follow UsAlright guys, we have another T20 league coming to the horizon.
Where now?
It is the United States of America all set to dip their toes in the waters of franchise cricket, with the Major League Cricket (MLC) set to begin this week. You may wonder why another T20 league but it holds a lot of significance in terms of promoting cricket in the US, one of the areas largely untouched by the popularity of cricket.
The USA have hosted cricket before, but only a few matches in various bilateral series which failed to gather constant attention from the crowd. They have also tried hosting T20 leagues before. In 2004, their Pro Cricket League was scrapped after one year. Later, they had plans of hosting the maiden season of MLC in 2021, but things got halted due to Covid-19.
In between, the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA) was replaced by USA Cricket.
This is USA’s best chance now at growing the game in the country at a steady rate. It is supported by the American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) which is backed by the founders of Willow TV, Sameer Mehta and Vijay Srinivasan, and Satyan Gajwani and Vineet Jain of the Times Group in India.
The idea is to attract the large number of South Asian and Caribbean expats in the country and then hope the game to spread from there.
When is it happening?
The inaugural season of the MLC kicks off on July 13, according to the local timings. In India, the first game kicks off on July 14 morning at 6 AM IST, so set your alarms ⏰⏱️
How many participants does MLC have?
The first season has six teams - named Los Angeles Knight Riders, MI New York, San Francisco Unicorns, Seattle Orcas, Texas Super Kings and Washington Freedom 🤔
Are IPL franchises involved in this league?
Yes, you get it right. The Los Angeles Knight Riders is a sister franchise of the Kolkata Knight Riders. In fact, the Kolkata franchise was the first IPL side to invest in MLC. Later, Mumbai Indians got the MI New York franchise, and Chennai Super Kings got Texas Super Kings.
The co-owners of the Delhi Capitals - the GMR group - have a stake in the Seattle Orcas franchise. The other half of the investment in the Seattle franchise comes from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Moving forward, Washington Freedom are owned by Indian-American entrepreneur Sanjay Govil. They have Cricket New South Wales as their high-performance partner. San Francisco Unicorns are owned by Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan. Following the footsteps of Washington, they have partnered with Cricket Victoria.
What is the format of the league?
The league stage will have a single round-robin phase. It will be followed with an IPL style play-offs stage - Qualifier 1, Eliminator, Qualifier 2, Final.
Courtesy of only six teams in a single round-robin phase, there are only 15 games in the league stage. That is a total of 19 games in a compact first season. The league wraps up within 18 days, with the final on July 30. According to the India time zone, the final will be played on July 31, 6 AM IST.
On doubleheader days, the matches, according to the Indian timing, will be at 2 AM and 6 AM.
Here is the full schedule for the 2023 season.
Which players will be taking part?
KKR stars like Jason Roy, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine are the major attractions on the Los Angeles side. Texas have the likes of Faf du Plessis, Devon Conway, Dwayne Bravo and David Miller. MI New York have plenty of stars like Kieron Pollard, Rashid Khan, Tim David and Nicholas Pooran, to name a few.
Quinton de Kock and Shimron Hetmyer will be adding batting firepower to the Seattle squad. While Washinton have Anrich Nortje and Glenn Phillips, San Fransico is adorned with Aaron Finch, Shadab Khan and Marcus Stoinis.
There are some interesting combinations there. You can check the full squads here.
Who are the captains?
Los Angeles Knight Riders - Sunil Narine
MI New York - Kieron Pollard
San Francisco Unicorns - Aaron Finch
Seattle Orcas - Wayne Parnell
Texas Super Kings - Faf du Plessis
Washington Freedom - Moises Henriques
How were the teams distributed?
The Space Center Houston, the official Visitor Center of NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, hosted the domestic players draft. A total of 54 players were picked in the nine rounds of the draft. Harmeet Singh, a member of India’s winning squad in the 2012 U19 World Cup, was the first player to be picked. He was taken by the Seattle orcas.
Harmeet broke ties with Indian cricket and is now an American resident.
Some of the well-known international stars who are playing in the competition as domestic American players are Liam Plunkett, Corey Anderson, Sami Aslam, Shehan Jayasuriya and Rusty Theron.
During the drafts, the first six marquee overseas players were also announced. Three teams announced the signing of two players each. For example: San Francisco Unicorns announced Finch as their captain during the draft process.
Are there Indian players in this league?
Yes, a few Indian players are a part of the tournament, but only those who have retired from Indian cricket. Apart from Harmeet, there are players like Unmukt Chand, Smit Patel (both won the U19 World Cup with India in 2012), Chaitanya Bishnoi, Tajinder Singh and Shubham Ranjane.
Ambati Rayudu was set to feature for the Texas Super Kings. However, the former Indian batter withdrew after BCCI's proposal to introduce a one-year cooling-off period for retired players before they can participate in overseas T20 leagues.
Any limit on the number of overseas players in the XI?
This is an important one. A maximum of six overseas players is allowed in a playing XI.
A squad can have 16 to 19 players. Nine overseas players are allowed per squad. Every squad should have at least ten domestic players, including one USA U23 player. This is where having experienced pros like Plunkett and Anderson as domestic recruits will come in handy.
Will the games have T20 status?
Remember the ILT20. The organizing board, Emirates Cricket Board, only has an Associate status. Hence, the ILT20 games didn’t have official T20 status.
Unfortunately, the MLC will suffer the same fate due to the same reason. Any feat throughout the season, however small or big it might be, won’t affect the official T20 record books.
Which are the venues for these games?
The season will be played across two venues - the Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas and the Church Street Park Stadium in Morrisville.
Grand Prairie will host the first eight league games. The teams will then travel to Morrisville for the remaining seven league games. Thereon, the qualifying teams will return to Texas for the play-offs.
The Grand Prairie Stadium is a former baseball venue. It was revamped into a cricketing venue, with the redevelopment work starting in April 2022 and ending a few months back this year.
Where to watch it?
Sports18 and Jio will be broadcasting the league in India. In North America, it will be live on Willow TV.
In other nations with prominent cricket following, SportsMax in the Caribbean, SKY NZ in New Zealand, Fox in Australia, BT Sport in the UK, SuperSport in South Africa and A Sports in Pakistan.
Which team will you be supporting??
(Cover image credits - @MLCricket on Twitter)
