New Jersey Somerset Cavaliers

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 U.S. cities under a single-entity model. The first season is set to take place over three weeks at Grand Prairie Stadium in Grand Prairie, Texas, near Dallas, concluding on July 30, 2023. In 2021, the development league for MLC, Minor League Cricket (MiLC), completed its inaugural season, which was contested by 27 franchise-based teams.

History

There have been various attempts to hold a Twenty20 (T20) cricket league in the United States, such as the short-lived Pro Cricket (which played a single season in 2004), and the American Premier League, a proposed league in partnership between the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA) and New Zealand Cricket, modeled after domestic T20 competitions.

In January 2019, USA Cricket was approved as the new governing board for cricket in USA, replacing the USACA, which had been expelled from the International Cricket Council in September 2017 due to governance issues.

The new body set a goal for cricket to reach wider, mainstream popularity in the country, where it has typically been considered a niche international sport.

In November 2018, USA Cricket announced that it was seeking partners to establish a domestic T20 league in the country by 2021, with goals to "engage existing fans and grow new ones", and spur "sustainable development of cricketing infrastructure across the United States". In May 2019, USA Cricket accepted a bid by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) for a $1 billion investment, covering the league and other investments benefitting the U.S. national teams. Its partners include Satyan Gajwani and Vineet Jain of The Times Group, and Willow TV founders Sameer Mehta and Vijay Srinivasan. As part of the agreement, ACE also handles commercial activities for T20I and ODI matches hosted by the United States.

In an annual general meeting on February 21, 2020, it was stated that USA Cricket planned to launch Major League Cricket in 2021, and a 22-team development league known as Minor League Cricket that summer as a prelude. Minor League Cricket was officially announced the following week, with plans to host a nine-week, 170-game season beginning July 4. However, it was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

In October 2020, USA Cricket reaffirmed plans to launch Major League Cricket in 2022 as part of its "foundational plan" for 2020–23. On December 1, 2020, it was announced that the IPL's Kolkata Knight Riders (co-owned by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan) would invest in ACE. In May 2021, the launch of Major League Cricket was delayed to 2023 due to COVID-19 and to provide additional time to develop facilities.

In February 2021, MLC announced plans for a youth version of Minor and Major League Cricket, as part of a pathway to give young cricketers the opportunity to play for official domestic teams and the national team. In June 2022, MLC announced the inaugural season of the Minor League Cricket Youth Tournament (shortened to MiLC Youth), with UST tapped as title sponsor for the tournament. The inaugural season of MiLC Youth was announced to be contested between 11 teams at the Prairie View Cricket Complex in Houston starting July 25, 2022. The finals for the inaugural season took place on July 29 at between the Dallas Mustangs and the New Jersey Stallions, in which the Stallions beat the Mustangs by 2 wickets.

In May 2022, Major League Cricket announced that they had acquired funds of $120 million as part of its Series A and A1 fundraising rounds. Investors committing to MLC featured the likes of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Ross Perot Jr., Anand Rajaraman, Shantanu Narayen and more. MLC plans to use these funds to mainly build stadiums and first-class facilities in the hopes of accelerating cricket's development across the United States.

In November 2022, it was announced the first season of MLC will be staged from July 13–30 at Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, Texas. The tournament will be played in a single round-robin format with 15 league matches played among six franchises before a four-match play-off phase. MLC also hopes to play matches in a to be constructed stadium in Los Angeles, and Church Street Park, North Carolina.

Teams

MLC is expected to begin with six teams; the league will use a single-entity structure under which all teams are owned by ACE, with investor-operators (who have invested in the company) assigned to each team. It hopes to expand to eight teams in the future, similar to other T20 leagues around the world.

USA Cricket's CEO Iain Higgins identified Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Jersey, New York, and San Francisco as markets where the sport was most popular. On November 18, 2020, it was announced that ACE would lease AirHogs Stadium in Grand Prairie, Texas—home of the former Texas AirHogs independent baseball team—and convert it to a cricket-specific facility that will host a Dallas-based team in Major League Cricket.

In March 2022, ACE discussed plans to invest $110 million in eight newly constructed or renovated venues for the league and possible hosting of matches during the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup (which the United States is co-hosting with the West Indies), including the aforementioned Grand Prairie Stadium, Church Street Park in Morrisville, Moosa Stadium in Pearland, Prairie View Cricket Complex in Prairie View, and new sites in Orange County, the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, and Marymoor Park in Redmond. The renovated venues have a budget of approximately $3 million each, while the three new west coast venues have a budget of $30 million each; ACE stated that the west coast venues would be completed by 2024, and will have a projected capacity of 10,000–20,000.

In July 2022, it was announced that MLC plans to launch its inaugural season in six markets across the United States including Dallas, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle.

In late September 2022, it was announced that the player draft for the league's inaugural season would be held in February or March 2023.

Minor League Cricket

Minor League Cricket is a developmental league for Major League Cricket that completed its inaugural season in 2021 (delayed from 2020 due to COVID-19). It consists of 27 franchise-based teams in four regional divisions. Unlike Major League Cricket, Minor League Cricket uses privately owned franchises.

References

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{{Top-level sport leagues in the United States

United States cricket in the 21st century
Cricket administration in the United States
Professional cricket leagues
Cricket leagues in the United States
Professional sports leagues in the United States
Twenty20 cricket leagues
Sports leagues established in 2019
2019 establishments in the United States
Proposed sports leagues