The New Pro T20 League In The U.S. Is Set To Shake Up Cricket Globally

Finally, after much hype and Covid-19 postponements, the first professional T20 cricket league in the U.S. is becoming a reality with the inaugural Major League Cricket season to be held on July 13-30, 2023.

The six-team tournament, comprising 19 games, will feature franchises from Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C, Seattle and New York City. Franchise names, rosters and salary caps are expected to be announced early next year.

Boasting a strong South Asian expatriate community, Dallas has been earmarked as the hub of cricket in the U.S. with the newly constructed Grand Prairie Stadium, located in the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex with a crowd capacity of 7500, to be the competition’s primary venue for the first edition and home venue for Dallas’ MLC team.

Playing in July is hoped to entice some of the very best players in the world during some wriggle room in cricket’s congested calendar. There aren’t rival T20 leagues – which are popping up in abundance worldwide marked by next year’s new lucrative UAEUAE
and South Africa tournaments – during that month with primarily red ball cricket in U.K. the only major action being played at that time.

Salary caps will be announced ahead of a player draft in February, but there is an expectation that remuneration could rival those nascent leagues which are offering top players $450,000 a season.

“We would like the US to be one of the top leagues in the world. We should have a decent salary cap,” co-founder Sameer Mehta told me in September.

MLC is also set to lure players attracted to being a pioneering part of launching cricket in the world’s biggest sports market. Those with connections to the U.S, either through family or who regularly travel there, will be targeted with tournament officials knowing they have a sleek and appealing destination to many.

After well-chronicled turbulence which long stunted cricket’s development in the U.S, which became nothing more than a cautionary tale, MLC is not fool’s gold having secured more than $40 million in funding and over $100 million in “handshakes” with private investors including tech giants MicrosoftMSFT
MSFT
and AdobeADBE
ADBE
.

The Kolkata Knight Riders, led by Bollywood superstar Shah Ruhk Khan, is a founding investor and helping build a cricket stadium in Los Angeles with MLC hoped to help cricket’s bid for inclusion into the 2028 Olympic Games.

Despite familiar trouble brewing at the national governing body, after a period of stability, cricket genuinely feels like it can at least carve out a niche in such a sought-after locale through the MLC, the 2024 T20 World Cup co-hosted by the U.S. and potentially cricket being part of the Los Angeles Olympics.

“Next summer, the eyes of world cricket will be on the launch of Major League Cricket, with the stars of the game competing over three weeks of fast-paced T20 action,” said tournament director Justin Geale.

“The launch of MLC will transform American cricket and provide one of the best platforms in the sport for the world’s most elite players to showcase their skills while also fast-tracking the development of domestic talent to feature in the league.”

Matches in the debut season could also be played in other destinations, including Morrisville and Florida which are areas with large South Asian expatriate communities.