The Seattle Thunderbolts 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 Minor League Cricket (branded as the Toyota Minor League Cricket Championship presented by Sling TV for sponsorship reasons, and sometimes shortened to MiLC) is an American Twenty20 cricket developmental league for Major League Cricket which com ...

(MiLC). The team is based in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. It was formed in 2021 as part of 3 new teams to compete in

. The franchise is owned by Seattle Sports LLC, as part of its cricket development program, owned by Phani Chitneni, Vijay Beniwal, and Salman Taj. The team's home ground is Klahanie Park and

Marymoor Park Marymoor Park, located on the north end of Lake Sammamish in Redmond, Washington, is King County's largest, oldest, and most popular park, with more than 3 million annual visitors coming to roam its . Among recreational activities available are ...

, both located in the Eastside region of

King County, Washington King County is located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population was 2,269,675 in the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Washington, and the 13th-most populous in the United States. The county seat is Seattle, also the st ...

. Harmeet Singh was named as captain, while

Andries Gous Andries Gous (born 24 November 1993) is a South African cricketer. He was included in the Free State cricket team for the 2015 Africa T20 Cup. In August 2017, he was named in Jo'burg Giants' squad for the first season of the T20 Global League. Th ...

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

, with the highest wicket-taker being

Shadley van Schalkwyk Shadley van Schalkwyk (born 5 August 1988) is a South African cricketer. He is a left-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-fast bowler who currently plays for Seattle Thunderbolts & Los Angeles Knight Riders. He was born in Cape Town. Van Schal ...

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

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

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 ...

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

2021 season

Before the season's drafting,

and American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) announced 3 new teams for the 2021 season including the Seattle Thunderbolts, the Manhattan Yorkers, and the St. Louis Americans. Ahead of the official season, which was announced to kick off on July 31, they announced Harmeet Singh as captain and

as vice-captain. For their first four matches of the season, they lost by a margin of 7, 6, 2, and 7 wickets, before going on a 6-match winning streak. Their winning streak was ended due to a 46-run loss against the Michigan Cricket Stars. They then lost back-to-back matches against the Golden State Grizzlies and the East Bay Blazers, before winning by 7 wickets against the

Silicon Valley Strikers The Silicon Valley Strikers are an American professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team that compete in Minor League Cricket (MiLC). The team is based in Silicon Valley, California. It was formed in 2020 as part of 24 original teams to compete i ...

in their last match of the season. They ended off the group stage with 7 wins and 7 losses, ending up in 4th place in their division, 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