New Zealand To Partner With New Franchise In America’s Major League Cricket

New Zealand Cricket will provide high-performance support and expertise as part of a partnership with a new franchise in Major League Cricket that is expected to be based in Toronto or Atlanta.

As I’ve reported previously, MLC, the fledgling T20 tournament in the U.S. that is about to start its third season, is set to expand from six teams to eight by 2027.

True North Sports Ventures will launch one of the expansion franchises and is majority-owned by MLC co-founders Sameer Mehta and Vijay Srinivasan, the league’s former chief executive.

NZC, a foundation investor in TNS, will provide operational support, including coaching, management and support staff, along with offering expertise in cricket infrastructure and turf management.

It is also an opportunity for NZC, a smaller cricket nation battling to retain its leading players to lucrative franchise leagues, to work closely with a growing T20 competition that already boasts a number of its top players, including stars Matt Henry, Rachin Ravindra, Finn Allen and Trent Boult.

“As franchise cricket grows globally, NZC needs to adapt to seize strategic opportunities that ensure the sustainability of our cricket network,” NZC chief executive Scott Weenink said.

“This helps diversify our revenue streams, expands our global brand and fan base, and creates new talent development and retention pathways for both our players and coaches.”

It is a new footprint for the well-heeled league aimed at developing cricket in the world’s biggest sports market.

Three of the six current franchises in the MLC are owned by Indian Premier League team owners – Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings – while Seattle, the only small-market franchise in the league, have ties with Delhi Capitals.

San Francisco and Washington have partnerships with Australian states – Cricket Victoria and Cricket New South Wales.

“As founders of start-ups that have rapidly grown to established businesses, we see NZC as a perfect fit for our new franchise,” said Srinivasan, who along with Mehta co-founded Willow TV, North America’s premier cricket broadcaster.

“With NZC’s expertise, our expansion franchise will elevate MLC’s world-class T20 product and support cricket’s rapid growth in our region.

“The potential for cricket in North America is immense, and we look forward to working with NZC to deliver on both our ambitions and theirs, including broader strategic and corporate opportunities globally.”

After numerous markets were explored, the new franchise will be based in Atlanta or Toronto, cities with significant South Asian communities. If Toronto is chosen then MLC will move into Canada which already boasts a T20 league.

MLC co-founder Satyan Gajwani will launch the other new franchise with Philadelphia and Chicago on the shortlist. Final decisions on the two new franchises are expected later in the year.

MLC is expected to eventually expand to 10 teams – mimicking the IPL – by early next decade. “I think this league is capable of supporting 10 teams in the medium term,” San Francisco Unicorns co-owner Anand Rajaraman told me.

“I think 10 is probably the right number for the North American market, which significantly also includes Canada. But we’ve got a big geography and we’ll have to think through the complications of that.”

An expanded MLC might mean more games and a longer duration of the competition, which could lead to wider implications for a sport struggling to breathe due to an increasingly congested calendar.

For this upcoming season, the monthlong MLC will start earlier than its previous two editions as it attempts to nestle into a June-mid July slot that does not clash with rival leagues in the U.K and Caribbean.

“We’re trying to own the calendar for a month in T20 cricket in this part of the world and position it very much as a league for the U.S. market,” new MLC chief executive Johnny Grave told me recently.

The new MLC season starts on June 12 with a rematch of last season’s final between defending champions Washington Freedom and San Francisco Unicorns at the iconic Oakland Coliseum, which will host nine games overall.