Major League Cricket 2023: Schedule, teams, players, format, live streaming — All you need to know

The inaugural season of Major League Cricket (MLC) begins on 14 July and will become the latest addition to the growing list of franchise T20 leagues across the globe. However, the investment the league has attracted and the hope that it could lead to a cricket revolution in the USA has already made it the cynosure of all eyes.

Before the MLC kicks off, here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming T20 league.

Is USA a cricket playing country?

Yes, they are an Associate member of the ICC with ODI status and took part in the recently concluded ICC ODI World Cup 2023 Qualifiers in Zimbabwe. In fact, USA were also part of the first cricket match involving two countries in 1844. They played against Canada at the St George’s Cricket Club ground in New York.

Has ICC approved MLC?

The ICC officially sanctioned MLC in April this year and the league has also been approved by USA Cricket. MLC will not be operated by USA Cricket but by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE).

ACE is promoted by Willow TV founders, Sameer Mehta and Vijay Srinivasan, and Times of India’s Satyan Gajwani and Vineet Jain. Willow TV is the largest cricket broadcaster in North America.

The statistics from the MLC will not be recorded against players’ profiles as the USA is not a Full-Member nation of the ICC.

MLC teams and format

Six teams will take part in the first season; Los Angeles Knight Riders, MI New York, San Francisco Unicorns, Seattle Orcas, Texas Super Kings and Washington Freedom.

All teams will be part of a single round-robin format following which the top four teams will qualify for the playoffs. The playoffs will include four matches — Qualifier 1, Eliminator, Qualifier 2 and the Final.

Venues

Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas and Church Street Park Stadium in Morrisville will together host the 19 matches of the first season.

Who are the team owners?

You are not wrong if you think Los Angeles Knight Riders belong to the Kolkata Knight Riders family.

Four of the six MLC teams are owned by IPL franchise owners.

Texas Super Kings belong to the Chennai Super Kings family and MI New York are with the Mumbai Indians group.

Seattle Orcas are owned by GMR Group, the co-owner of Delhi Capitals.

San Francisco Unicorns are owned by Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan. They have partnered with Australia’s Cricket Victoria to run the franchise. Washington Freedom, owned by Sanjay Govil, have partnered with Cricket New South Wales.

TV broadcast and live streaming

Willow TV has the broadcast right for USA and Canada. The MLC will be shown live on Sports18 and JioTV in India.

Which big names will take part in MLC?

A galaxy of stars will descend on the USA for the MLC including Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Rashid Khan, Kieron Pollard, Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis, Jason Roy, Trent Boult, Faf du Plessis, Devon Conway, David Miller, Quinton de Kock, Shimron Hetmyer and Anrich Nortje among others.

Is there a cap on overseas players?

In MLC, each franchise can have a maximum of 19 players and a minimum of 16. They need to have a minimum of 10 domestic players including at least one U23 USA player. In the playing XI, teams can have a maximum of six overseas players.

Are there Indian players in MLC?

There are quite a few of them. However, all of these players have retired from Indian domestic cricket. They include Unmukt Chand, Harmeet Singh, Smit Patel, Sarbjeet Singh Ladda, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Tajinder Singh Dhillon, Milind Kumar and Shubham Ranjane.

Full schedule, match timing and venue

MLC squads

Los Angeles Knight Riders: Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Jason Roy, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Adam Zampa, Rilee Rossouw, Spencer Johnson, Ali Khan, Unmukt Chand, Jaskaran Malhotra, Nitish Kumar, Corne Dry, Ali Sheikh, Saif Badar, Shadley Van Schalkwyk, Bhaskar Yadram, Gajanand Singh

MI New York: Kieron Pollard, Trent Boult, Rashid Khan, Tim David, Dewald Brevis, David Wiese, Kagiso Rabada, Nicholas Pooran, Jason Behrendorff, Steven Taylor, Hammad Azam, Ehsan Adil, Nosthush Kenjige, Monank Patel, Sarbjeet Ladda, Shayan Jahangir, Kyle Phillip, Saideep Ganesh, Jasdeep Singh

Seattle Orcas: Quinton de Kock, Wayne Parnell, Dasun Shanaka, Sikandar Raza, Harmeet Singh, Shehan Jayasuriya, Shubham Ranjane, Cameron Gannon, Aaron Jones, Nauman Anwar, Phani Simhadri, Angelo Perera, Matthew Tromp, Nisarg Patel

San Francisco Unicorns: Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis, Lungi Ndigi, Corey Anderson, Liam Plunkett, Tajinder Singh, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Carmi Le Roux, Brody Couch, David White, Smit Patel, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Amila Aponso

Texas Super Kings: Devon Conway, Mitchell Santner, Daniel Sams, David Miller Gerald Coetzee, Dwayne Bravo, Rusty Theron, Calvin Savage, Lahiru Milantha, Milind Kumar, Sami Aslam, Cameron Stevenson, Cody Chetty, Zia Shahzad, Saiteja Mukkamalla, Mohammad Mohsin

Washington Freedom: Anrich Nortje, Wanindu Hasaranga, Marco Jansen, Glenn Phillips, Adam Milne, Moises Henriques, Josh Philippe, Andries Gous, Mukhtar Ahmed, Obus Pienaar, Saurabh Netravalkar, Saad Ali, Dane Piedt, Sujith Gowda, Justin Dill, Akhilesh Bodugum, Ben Dwarshuis, Usman Rafiq