America's New Professional Cricket League
A new league, six new teams and a new sport coming at the world class level to the United States. Here's everything you need to know to follow the inaugural Major League Cricket season following the player draft at the Space Center Houston.
INTRODUCING MAJOR LEAGUE CRICKET
Six teams will take part in the historic first MLC season this summer
The inaugural MLC match will be played on Thursday, July 13, 2023. A further 18 games will take place leading up to the first-ever championship final on July 30. The full schedule of matches and ticket sales information will be released soon.
Most of the matches will take place at Grand Prairie Stadium near Dallas, TX. This newly renovated cricket-specific stadium features 7,200 seats and a grass wicket meeting the highest levels of international accreditation. A secondary venue will also host games, with details to be announced soon.
Who are the teams taking part?
Six founding teams will play this summer - the Los Angeles Knight Riders, MI New York, San Francisco Unicorns, Seattle Orcas, Texas Super Kings and Washington Freedom.
Each team is backed on the team performance side by a world class cricketing entity who have run teams at the very highest-levels of global T20 cricket.
- Los Angeles Knight Riders -- Knight Riders Group
- MI New York -- Mumbai Indians
- San Francisco Unicorns -- Cricket Victoria (high-performance partner)
- Seattle Orcas -- GMR Group (co-owner of the Delhi Capitals, high performance partner)
- Texas Super Kings -- Chennai Super Kings
- Washington Freedom -- Cricket New South Wales (high-performance partner)
MLC is backed by a suite of investors representing a group of America’s most successful and respected business leaders, including lead Series A round backers:
- Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft) and Soma Somasegar (Managing Director, Madrona Venture Group)
- Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan (Founding Partners at Milliways Ventures and Rocketship VC)
- Sanjay Govil (Founder and Chairman of Infinite Computer Solutions and CEO, Zyter)
- Anurag Jain (Managing Partner of Perot Jain, LP, Chairman of Access Healthcare) and Ross Perot Jr. (Chairman, The Perot Group)
- Tanweer Ahmed (CEO, PAK Foods, CEO, OUR Energy and Owner of Prairie View Cricket Complex)
- The Baheti Family (Owners of YASH Technologies)
THE PLAYERS
The world's best cricketers are coming to the United States
MLC team rosters will each feature multiple top global T20 superstars alongside the best players from the domestic player pool, including dozens with experience playing at the highest levels of the sport. View the latest signings on the player tracker here.
The MLC Domestic Player Draft took place on Sunday, March 19, with each team selecting nine of the leading players from the domestic player pool for their squads. Over 100 players were eligible to be drafted, with the 54 players selected representing the top US-based talent in the USA cricket community, including 16 players capped by the USA National Team.
Multiple teams announced high-profile overseas signings during the MLC draft event, with dozens more to be revealed soon from amongst the best T20 players in the world.
Each team will have a minimum of 16 players and a maximum of 19 players on its squad. Each roster must include one under-23 domestic "rookie" player to help develop the next generation of American star players, along with another nine domestic players.
Each team is permitted up to nine international players on its roster. No more than six international players are permitted in the playing XI, with five domestic players to feature in each match and ten domestic players on each roster at all times.
Many of the top T20 cricketers in the world will take part in MLC. Many have already been announced (see full list here), with dozens more to be revealed in the coming weeks.
THE RULES
Explaining the roster rules and regulations
Yes, each team's total salary cap is $1.15M for the tournament, putting MLC amongst the elite T20 global leagues in terms of player compensation per match.
Minor League Cricket is the only nationwide tournament involving the strongest male players playing against each other at the best available facilities, with almost all of the players selected in the 2023 MLC Domestic Player Draft having participated in the competition over the previous two seasons. The primary aim of the tournament is to give a platform and opportunity for the best cricketers in America to showcase their abilities at a national level and go on to represent the USA National Team.
Yes! In addition to the nine domestic players already drafted, each team will also select one player via a draft following the completion of the first segment of the 2023 Minor League Cricket season in early July.
In addition to the requirement to have one ‘rookie’ (U23) player in the squad for MLC, teams will also select a further two ‘rookie’ (U23) domestic players to their Practice Squad. These players will be selected via the MiLC Development Rookie Player Draft.
If an international player is unavailable, the team will be permitted to replace this player on the team roster. Any player that is replaced on the team roster will be ineligible to return to the team roster for the remainder of the tournament.
In the case of domestic players, a team will be permitted to replace a player on the team roster in instances where the injury would prevent the player from taking any further part in the season.
THE SPORT
New to the wonderful world of cricket? Start here!
MLC will be the "T20" format of game loved by billions of fans around the world: it's fast (games last around 3 hours), explosive (lots of big-hitting "sixes") and packed with entertainment.
If you're a baseball fan, we'll let our friend Jomboy explain it for you... (other good explainers: Vox - Cricket Explained | ICC What is Cricket?)
Though the fundamentals of cricket are similar to baseball as Jomboy explains, it certainly has a lot of arcane terminology to learn over time. Check out the top 40 terms here to learn here.
It sure has! In fact, the first-ever international sporting event of any kind -- not even just in cricket -- was a cricket match between teams representing the United States and Canada back in 1844. Cricket was once more popular than baseball, though ultimately lost out in the battle of bat-and-ball sports. Even so, one of the greatest players of cricket's "golden age" (approx. 1890-1914) was an American from Philadelphia, Bart King, a swing bowling pioneer.
Now it's time for a new generation of American players to make their mark on the global stage with the launch of Major League Cricket this summer and the T20 World Cup coming to America in 2024!
PARTNERSHIP WITH USA CRICKET
As the ICC's member body for the United States, USA Cricket has selected MLC as its exclusive partner for the development of a professional Twenty20 cricket league. MLC will also provide support for both the USA’s Men’s and Women’s teams, with the goal of elevating them to the highest level of international competition. In 2024, the USA will co-host the ICC Men's T20 World Cup alongside the West Indies.
Building Cricket Across America
MLC is developing cricketing infrastructure including:
In parallel, MLC is also establishing high-performance pathways to create a deep talent pool of players to feed Minor League Cricket and Major League Cricket.
MAJOR LEAGUE CRICKET FOUNDERS
The founders of Major League Cricket have been deeply involved with cricket in the US, particularly with the establishment of the US as a major broadcast market for cricket. MLC is co-founded by the founders of Willow TV, the largest cricket broadcaster in North America and the principals of The Times of India Group, India’s largest media conglomerate. MLC is also backed by a prominent and diverse group of investors from across the United States.