Major League Cricket or MLC as it’s called, is a T20 cricket tournament which is played in the USA. Its first ever edition was held in 2023 after years of trying to get it off the ground and is expected to become a norm in the American cricketing calendar.
History of MLC – How did MLC start?
After having made efforts to kick-start this tournament in the USA since 2018, its first season was finally played in 2023. This was preceded by the Pro Cricket and the American Premier League, both of which didn’t last too long.
The USA cricket board, called USA Cricket, looked for partners in 2018 to kick-start a new T20 tournament by 2021
There was interest shown by the American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) with others including Satyan Gajwani, Vineet Jain and Willow TV founders Sameer Mehta and Vijay Srinivasan also becoming a part of this team. The plan was to invest US$1 billion into the tournament and be a part of the activities around international cricket in the USA as well.
The initial launch was expected to happen in 2021 before it was postponed to 2022 because of Covid-19. There was a further delay in the start of the tournament because of the same reasons and it was finally launched in 2023.
As interest grew in the tournament’s vision, more investors have jumped on board. These include Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Anand Rajaraman, Ross Perot Jr. and Shantanu Narayen among others.
The money made through these investments is expected to be used to construct stadiums in the USA in a bid to improve the growth of cricket in the country.
At the same time, it was announced that a Minor League Cricket competition will be launched as a feeder tournament for the Major League Cricket. The Minor League Cricket started in 2021 and has been played each year after that.
Why is it called MLC?
Major League Cricket is an American cricket tournament and like most sports leagues in the country like the Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and Major League Table Tennis
, it’s called so.
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MLC 2023 season
The first ever season of the Major League Cricket was first held in 2023. Six franchise-based teams participated in the first season and the tournament format consisted of each of the teams face off against the other once in a round-robin way.
This meant a total of 15 matches would be played during the league stage of the MLC before the top four sides would make it to the playoffs.
In a format not too different from the IPL, the top two ranked sides would face off in the Qualifier while the teams ranked third and fourth during the group stages would face off in the Eliminator.
The winner of the Qualifier would make it to the final while the losing team in that match would face the winner of the Eliminator in a match called the Challenger. The winner of the Challenger will face the winner of the Qualifier in the title-decider.
MLC 2023 teams
Six teams participated in the first edition of the Major League Cricket. These were:
- Los Angeles Knight Riders (owned by Kolkata Knight Riders)
- MI New York (owned by Indiawin Sports)
- San Francisco Unicorns (owned by Anand Rajaraman, Venky Harinarayan)
- Seattle Orcas (owned by GMR Group, Satya Nadella)
- Texas Super Kings (owned by Chennai Super Kings, Anurag Jain, Ross Perot Jr.)
- Washington Freedom (owned by Sanjay Govil)
All these teams are owned by the American Cricket Enterprises. Each of the team has at least one of the investors associated with it.
MLC 2023 venues
There were 19 matches played in the first edition of the MLC with 12 of these games hosted at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas and the rest of them played at the Church Street Park in Morrisville.
The Grand Prairie Stadium was earlier used to play baseball before it got into a long lease agreement with American Cricket Enterprises in 2020. The work on the stadium began in 2022 before it was used to host the MLC’s first season in 2023. It hosted eight group games and the four playoffs.
The Church Street Park stadium is in North Carolina and has hosted international cricket matches in the past. It was used to host seven group games in the MLC 2023.
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MLC 2023 Results, Points Table & Stats
The Seattle Orcas won four of their five group games to finish on the top of the table while Texas Super Kings finished second with three wins.
Washington Freedom also had three victories to their name but fell to third on net run-rate while MI New York edged out San Francisco Unicorns for the fourth and the last qualifying spot.
The Unicorns and Los Angeles Knight Riders finished fifth and sixth and were knocked out of the tournament in the group stages.
In the play-offs, the Orcas crushed the Super Kings to make it to the final while MI New York went past Washington Freedom in the Eliminator. The Challenger match saw MI New York then chase down Texas’ 158 before they defeated the Seattle side in the final to lift the trophy.
- Most runs scored in MLC 2023: Nicholas Pooran (388), Quinton de Kock (264), Heinrich Klaasen (235), Devon Conway (221), Tim David (209)
- Most wickets taken in MLC 2023: Trent Boult (22), Cameron Gannon (11), Andrew Tye (11), Imad Wasim (10), Saurabh Netravalkar (10)
Nicholas Pooran won the Most Valuable Player award while Cameron Gannon was declared the Domestic Player of the Series.
MLC 2023 broadcasting & live streaming
The first ever edition of the MLC was broadcast live in dozens of countries including India, Australia, UK, USA and Pakistan. Some of the broadcasting and live streaming options of the Major League Cricket for these countries are as follows:
- USA: Willow TV, Sling TV (select matches), CBS Sports (select matches)
- India: Sports18 & JioCinema
- Pakistan: A Sports
- Australia: Fox Cricket
- UK: BT Sport
- Bangladesh: Toffee
- Caribbean: SportsMax
- MENA Countries: Etisalat by e&
- New Zealand: Sky Sport
- South Africa: Super Sport
Photo Credit: Marcus Wallis on Unsplash.