 "Major League Cricket")
American T20 league Major League Cricket (MLC), the first American professional cricket league, has made a grand entrance in the US.
A country captivated by Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Football League (NFL), and the National Basketball Association (NBA) has sold out over two-thirds of its inaugural season games.
The MLC, a professional Twenty20 cricket league, commenced on July 13 and is scheduled to conclude on July 31.
On July 16, Tom Dunmore, vice president of marketing, MLC, said that six matches in its inaugural season have now sold out across its first ten days of play.
The MLC comprises six franchises: San Francisco Unicorns, Seattle Orcas, Texas Super Kings, Washington Freedom, MI New York, and Los Angeles Knight Riders.
Also Read
The first season of the MLC is taking place over three weeks at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Grand Prairie, Texas, and Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina.
The tournament will be played in a single round-robin format with 15 league matches played among six franchises, followed by a four-match play-off phase.
Dunmore said, "The first week of MLC action in Texas has shown the world that top-level cricket can thrive in America, and fans will flock to see it."
He added that the global impact of launching a new major cricket league in a new market is seen in the massive social media engagement and media interest.
"Cricket in America truly has arrived," said Dunmore.
Experts have said that the MLC has all components for a successful league: an engaging format, competitive teams, a strong fan base, and skilled players.
Nikhil Vyas, co-founder and CEO, ITW Sports USA, said that cricket's success in the US is very important for it to become a truly global sport.
He added that the record ticket sales for the initial games point towards the long-term success of the league.
The MLC has successfully captured the attention of American media outlets, including the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), The New York Times, The New Yorker, Texas Monthly, and Bloomberg.
According to MLC's data, the league has already garnered 40 million impressions and three million engagements on social media platforms. Additionally, the match highlights on YouTube have surpassed three million views.
The MLC's introduction occurs amid the fierce competition among professional T20 leagues vying for the second position in the global cricket commerce landscape, with the Indian Premier League (IPL) standing tall as the undisputed leader, boasting a staggering enterprise valuation of $15 billion.
The MLC has some of the top international cricketers, such as Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard, Adam Zampa, Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Tim David, Aaron Finch, Devon Conway, Marcus Stoinis, Quinton de Kock, David Miller, Glenn Phillips and many more.
List of players
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, and 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, Saideep Ganesh, Jasdeep Singh, Waqar Salamkheil, and Tristan Stubbs
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, Qais Ahmad, Finn Allan, Mackenzie Harvey, Shadab Khan, Haris Rauf, and Matthew Wade
Seattle Orcas
Quinton de Kock, Wayne Parnell, Dasun Shanaka, Harmeet Singh, Shehan Jayasuriya, Shubham Ranjane, Cameron Gannon, Aaron Jones, Nauman Anwar, Phani Simhadri, Angelo Perera, Matthew Tromp, Nisarg Patel, Shimron Hetmyer, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, Andrew Tye, Hayden Walsh, and Imad Wasim
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, Faf du Plessis, and Imran Tahir
Washington Freedom
Anrich Nortje, 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, Akeal Hosin, and Tanveer Sangha
