The Houston Hurricanes are an American professional

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

franchise

cricket team Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by strikin ...

that compete in Minor League Cricket (MiLC). The team is based in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. It was formed in 2020 as part of 24 original teams to compete in Minor League Cricket. The franchise is owned by Tanweer Ahmed and Mangesh Chaudhari. The team's home ground is

Prairie View Cricket Complex The Prairie View Cricket Complex (PVCC) is a group of six cricket grounds located in the Waller County neighborhood of Houston, Texas, United States. The facility is joint-owned by Tanweer Ahmed and Major League Cricket. History In January 2 ...

, located in Prairie View, Texas. Usman Rafiq was named as captain, while

Willem Ludick Willem Ludick (born 20 March 1997) is a South African cricketer who has played domestic cricket in New Zealand. In 2020, Ludick had moved to Texas, with an aim of possibly representing the United States. He is the grandson of South African Olymp ...

was named as vice-captain for the team. The current leading run-scorer is

, with the highest wicket-taker being Karthik Gattepalli.

Franchise history

Background

Talks of an American

league started in November 2018 just before

USA Cricket USA Cricket (USAC) is the governing body of cricket in the United States. USA Cricket operates all of the United States national representative cricket sides, including the men's and women's national teams and youth teams, as well as Minor Lea ...

became the new governing body of cricket in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. In May 2021,

announced they had accepted a bid by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) for a

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1 billion investment covering the league and other investments benefitting the U.S. national teams. In an Annual General Meeting on February 21, 2020, it was announced that

was planning to launch

Major League Cricket Major League Cricket (MLC) is an upcoming professional Twenty20 cricket league in the United States. Operated by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) and sanctioned by USA Cricket, it plans to begin play on July 13, 2023, with six teams in major ...

in 2021 and Minor League Cricket that summer, but it was delayed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

and due to the lack of high-quality cricket stadiums in the USA.

was pushed to a summer-2023 launch and Minor League Cricket was pushed back to July 31, 2021.

CEO Iain Higgins pointed out cities such as

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

with a large cricket fanbase, and targeted them among others as launch cities for Minor League Cricket.

Exhibition league

In July 2020, the player registration for the Minor League Cricket exhibition league began. On August 15, 2020,

announced the teams participating in the exhibition league matches, also listing the owners for each team. The draft for the exhibition league began on August 22, 2020, with the Houston Hurricanes releasing their squad on August 24. Usman Rafiq was later named as captain for the Houston Hurricanes in the exhibition league. The exhibition matches kicked off on September 12, with the Houston Hurricanes losing their first match to the Irving Mustangs by 75 runs. The Houston Hurricanes then went on to concede 3 wins and 2 losses, placing 3rd throughout the exhibition league in the Central Division.

2021 season

After the conclusion of the exhibition league,

announced that they were planning to launch the inaugural season of Minor League Cricket in spring 2021. Ahead of the official season, which was announced to kick off on July 31, they announced Usman Rafiq as captain and Willem Ludick as vice-captain. In their first match of the season, the Houston Hurricanes defeated the Austin Athletics chasing down a total of 175 in the 20th over, winning the match by 3 wickets. They then went on to win their next 3 games by 4 wickets, 50 runs, and 76 runs respectively, until they went on to concede their first loss of the season against the Michigan Cricket Stars. Over the following weeks, the Houston Hurricanes won 8 more matches, and lost 2 more matches, thus qualifying them for the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals, they faced the Golden State Grizzlies in a best-of-three series, losing the series 2-0, and placing 3rd in the league.

2022 season

Ahead of the 2022 season, MLC announced that the draft for that season would take place on May 12. In January 2023, MLC announced that the Hurricanes would play a three-game series at the

Quetta Gladiators Quetta Gladiators (Urdu, Balochi: ; Pashto: کویټه ګلیډیټرز) is a Pakistani professional Twenty20 cricket franchise that competes in the Pakistan Super League (PSL). They play most home games at the 27,000-capacity Gaddafi Stadium ...

of the

Pakistan Super League The Pakistan Super League (PSL) is a professional Twenty20 cricket league contested during February and March of every year by six teams representing six cities of Pakistan. The league was founded on 9 September 2015 with five teams by the Paki ...

Current squad

* Players with international caps are listed in bold.

References

{{Cricket in the United States Minor League Cricket teams Sports clubs and teams in Houston Cricket clubs established in 2020 2020 establishments in Texas