The Texas Super Kings is 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 inn ...
cricket
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 str ...
team that competes in
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 ...
(MLC). The team is based in Dallas, Texas and was announced in 2023 as one of six inaugural teams to play in Major League Cricket. The team has two minor league affiliates – the Dallas Mustangs and the Dallas Xforia Giants, which both 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 ...
alongside 24 other teams. The franchise is co-owned by the
Chennai Super Kings
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is an Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise cricket team based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 2008, the team plays its home matches at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The team is owned by India ...
,
Ross Perot Jr.
Henry Ross Perot Jr. (born November 7, 1958) is a real estate developer and American businessman who is best known for his development of Alliance, Texas, an inland port near Dallas–Fort Worth, and making the first circumnavigation of the world ...
, and Anurag Jain.
The team's home ground is
Grand Prairie Stadium, located in
Grand Prairie,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
. The stadium has a capacity of 7,200 – but it can expanded to seat 15,000 for major events. The team is coached by
Stephen Fleming
Stephen Paul Fleming (born 1 April 1973) is a New Zealand cricket coach and former captain of the New Zealand national cricket team, who is the current head coach of Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. He is considered one of the g ...
, who also serves as head coach for the
Chennai Super Kings
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is an Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise cricket team based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 2008, the team plays its home matches at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The team is owned by India ...
and the
Joburg Super Kings, and is captained by former South African skipper
Faf du Plessis
Francois "Faf" du Plessis ( ; born 13 July 1984) is a South African professional cricketer and former captain of the South Africa national cricket team. He is considered one of the greatest fielders of all time and is among the best all-forma ...
.
Franchise history
Background
In November 2020, USA Cricket announced that ACE had acquired a 15-year lease for a former
Minor League Baseball stadium to be renovated into a fully-fledged cricket stadium, which would host the Dallas franchise Major League Cricket team. Plans were reaffirmed two years later in December 2022, where MLC officially announced its 2023 season and the name of the Texas franchise home ground,
Grand Prairie Stadium.
In May 2022, it was formally announced during a
Series A
A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exc ...
and A1 fundraising round for Major League Cricket that Anurag Jain and
Ross Perot Jr.
Henry Ross Perot Jr. (born November 7, 1958) is a real estate developer and American businessman who is best known for his development of Alliance, Texas, an inland port near Dallas–Fort Worth, and making the first circumnavigation of the world ...
– who were among many big-name investors such as
Satya Nadella and
Sanjay Parthasarathy – would co-own the Texas franchise cricket team.
In the buildup to the
2023 draft – which was held on March 19, the Texas franchise announced its partnership with the
Chennai Super Kings
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is an Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise cricket team based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 2008, the team plays its home matches at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The team is owned by India ...
. Following the draft, the team held a press conference wherein co-owner Anurag Jain, amongst Stephen Fleming and K.S. Viswanathan, publicly announced their team name – the Texas Super Kings, logo and coach for the first time. However, it was announced in late April that they had revamped their logo for it to look similar to the logos of the Chennai and Joburg Super Kings.
2023 season
Prior to the launch of the official season, it was announced the MLC's inaugural domestic draft would take place on March 19, 2023. The Super Kings had the final pick of the first round draft and selected
Rusty Theron
Juan "Rusty" Theron (born 24 July 1985) is a South African-American professional cricketer. He played for the Warriors cricket team in South African domestic cricket and Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League and for the South Africa n ...
, before adding
Sami Aslam
Sami Aslam (born 12 December 1995) is a Pakistani cricketer who played for the Pakistan national cricket team between 2015 and 2017 before joining Major League Cricket. He was a left-handed batsman and an occasional right-arm off spin bowler.
He ...
,
Calvin Savage
Calvin Peter Savage (born 4 January 1993) is a South African professional cricketer who played for the KwaZulu-Natal Inland. In August 2017, he was named in Benoni Zalmi's squad for the first season of the T20 Global League. However, in Octob ...
, and
Milind Kumar with later selections. In June 2023, the Super Kings announced seven of their nine overseas signings, including
Ambati Rayudu
Ambati Thirupathi Rayudu (born 23 September 1985) is an Indian cricketer who currently captains the Baroda cricket team in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy championship. He played 61 limited overs matches for the India national cricket team between ...
,
Devon Conway
Devon Philip Conway (born 8 July 1991) is a South African born New Zealand cricketer who plays for the New Zealand cricket team. In March 2020, the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed that Conway would be eligible to play for New Zealan ...
, and
Dwayne Bravo
Dwayne John Bravo (born 7 October 1983) is a Trinidadian cricketer and a former captain of the West Indies cricket team. A genuine right arm seam bowling all-rounder, Bravo is well known for his aggressive lower-order batting and for his bowl ...
. In addition, they announced their full support staff lineup, including
Albie Morkel
Johannes Albertus Morkel (born 10 June 1981), better known as Albie Morkel, is a former South African cricketer. He is an all-rounder who bowls right-arm medium fast and bats left-handed. He was earmarked as the new Lance Klusener from an earl ...
and
Eric Simons, among others. They subsequently announced that former South African skipper,
Faf du Plessis
Francois "Faf" du Plessis ( ; born 13 July 1984) is a South African professional cricketer and former captain of the South Africa national cricket team. He is considered one of the greatest fielders of all time and is among the best all-forma ...
, would
captain the side
and on July 5, selected
Mohammad Mohsin
Mohammad Mohsin called popularly as ''Mohsin'' was an Odia actor, director and producer. In his movie career spanning more than 30 years across Bollywood, Odisha and West Bengal, he has acted and directed in many commercially successful movies. ...
as their Domestic Wildcard Pick.
Rayudu withdrew from the tournament following the
Board of Control of Cricket in India
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the national governing body for cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at Cricket centre, Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The BCCI is the richest governing body of cricket in the worl ...
's proposal of a year-long "cooling-off period" for recently retired players and his place taken by
Imran Tahir
Mohammad Imran Tahir ( pa, ; born 27 March 1979) is a South African former international cricketer. A spin bowler who predominantly bowls googlies and a right-handed batsman, Tahir played for South Africa in all three forms of cricket, but ...
.
In the opening match of the tournament on July 13, the Super Kings recorded a 69-run win over the
Los Angeles Knight Riders. This was followed by a 6-run defeat to the
Washington Freedom
Washington Freedom was an American professional soccer club based in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Germantown, Maryland, that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The Freedom was founded in 2001 as a member of the defunct Women's Uni ...
in their second match, a 17-run victory over
MI New York and an 8-wicket defeat to the
Seattle Orcas.
A three-wicket win over the
San Francisco Unicorns ensured a top-two finish going into the playoffs, but losses to both Seattle and New York saw the team eliminated.
Current squad
* Players with international caps are listed in bold.
Administration and support staff
References
{{Authority control
Sports clubs and teams in Dallas
India Cements
Major League Cricket teams
2023 establishments in Texas
Cricket clubs established in 2023
Sports in Grand Prairie, Texas