The San Diego Surf Riders 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 competes in Minor League Cricket (MiLC). The team is based in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It was formed in 2020 as part of 24 original teams to compete in Minor League Cricket. The team is co-owned by

Rajinder Ghai Rajinder (Raj) Singh Ghai (born 12 June 1960 in Jalandhar, India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the mos ...

, Gangaram Singh, Sanjit Menezes, Jimmy Anklesaria, and Ram Madabushi. The team's home ground is Canyonside Park, located in

's Rancho Peñasquitos neighborhood. Marty Kain is helming

captaincy A captaincy ( es, capitanía , pt, capitania , hr, kapetanija) is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires. It was instituted as a method of organization, directly associated with the home-rule ...

duties, with American cricketer Mrunal Patel helming

vice-captain Vice-captain, alternate captain (ice hockey) or vice-skip (curling) may refer to a role in a number of sports immediately below the role of captain. The vice-captain may have a number of different roles, including substituting as captain when the re ...

duties. Americans Sri Krishna A and

Timil Patel Timil Kaushik Patel (born 1 December 1983) is an Indian-born American cricketer. He played with Indian Ranji Trophy team Gujarat from 2002 to 2010. He also played for India Under-19 Team in 2003 that toured England, until he moved to the United ...

lead the batting and bowling leaderboards for the team with 344 runs and 18 wickets.

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 also 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 ...

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 ...

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 Surf Riders releasing their squad on August 24. Marty Kain was later named as captain for the Surf Riders for the exhibition league.

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, the Lashings announced Marty Kain to continue his role as

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

with Mrunal Patel helming

duties. In their first match of the season, the Surf Riders defeated the

Master Blasters ''Master Blasters'' is an American game show that debuted on July 27, 2005. A team of challengers competes against the home team, the Master Blasters, each week to construct rocket-based machines in a timed competition. The series premiered on th ...

by 5 wickets in a low-scoring game, but then lost to the Lashings by 4 wickets the same day. The Surf Riders, however, only won three times after their opening match victory, once against the

Thunderbolts A thunderbolt or lightning bolt is a symbolic representation of lightning when accompanied by a loud thunderclap. In Indo-European mythology, the thunderbolt was identified with the 'Sky Father'; this association is also found in later Hell ...

, once against the

, and once against the Irving Mustangs. They lost against the

, the

Strikers Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

twice, the Blazers twice, the Lashings, Hurricanes, and the Athletics. The Surf Riders finished on top of the Master Blasters, and finished 6th, thus not qualifying for the finals.

2022 season

Ahead of the 2022 season,

announced that the draft for that season would take place on May 12.

Current squad

* Players with international caps are listed in bold.

References

{{Cricket in the United States Minor League Cricket teams Cricket teams in San Diego Cricket clubs established in 2020 2020 establishments in California