The Silicon Valley Strikers 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

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

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 franchise is owned by Stanford Strikers LLC. The team's home ground is Morgan Hills Outdoor Sports Complex, located in

Morgan Hill, California Morgan Hill is a city in Santa Clara County, California, at the southern tip of Silicon Valley, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Morgan Hill is an affluent residential community, the seat of several high-tech companies, and a dining, entertainmen ...

. Pranay Suri was named as captain for the 2023 Minor league season, replacing Unmukt Chand. The current leading run-scorer is Unmukt Chand, with the highest wicket-taker being Pranay Suri.

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 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

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 Silicon Valley Strikers releasing their squad on August 24.

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 Scha ...

was later named as captain for the Silicon Valley Strikers in the exhibition league.

2021 season

After the conclusion of the exhibition league,

announced that they were planning to launch the inaugural season of

in spring 2021. Ahead of the official season, which was announced to kick off on July 31, they announced

Unmukt Chand Unmukt Chand (born 26 March 1993) is an Indian-American cricketer. He is a right-handed top order batsman who currently plays for the Silicon Valley Strikers in Minor League Cricket, and the Melbourne Renegades in Australia's Big Bash League. H ...

as captain and Pranay Suri as vice-captain (although originally Suri was captain, due to Chand not being called in the squad until the third week). In their first match of the season, the Strikers defeated the Thunderbolts by 2

wicket In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a batsman out. ...

s. They then went on to win against the Master Blasters, the Surf Riders twice, the Blazers twice, the Lashings, the Grizzlies twice, and the Thunderbolts again. They additionally lost against the Lashings, the Master Blasters, and the Thunderbolts throughout the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concent ...

. They placed ''2nd'' in their group, thus qualifying the Strikers for the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals, the Strikers won against the Austin Athletics in a best-of-3 series 2-1, qualifying them for the semi-finals. During the semi-finals, the Strikers bowled out the Grizzlies for 135 to win by 33 runs and take them to the finals. In the finals, they won against the Stallions by 6

s to win their maiden MiLC title.

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 the San Francisco Bay Area Cricket clubs established in 2020 2020 establishments in California Morgan Hill, California Sports clubs and teams in Santa Clara County, California