Will the USA finally crack the cricket market with Major League Cricket?

Cricket is once again trying to break into the American market, the latest attempt comes in the guise of Major League Cricket. A name familiar to Americans as it mirrors the name of their professional baseball league, yet this is different, it’s cricket, and it’s funded (mostly) by exceptionally wealthy Indians who absolutely love the sport.

Major League Cricket (MLC) is a franchise cricket league with strong ties to the Indian Premier League. There are six teams in the inaugural competition, starting on the 13th of July, and four of them are owned, at least in part, by IPL owners.

The six teams are: Texas Super Kings, the Seattle Orcas, the Los Angeles Knight Riders, the Washington Freedom, the MI New York, and the San Francisco Unicorns.

Those familiar with the IPL will recognise the Super Kings, Knight Riders and MI (Mumbai Indians) team names.

Cricket has made attempts to enter the American market before with little success, but this time, there is some serious cash backing the venture up. Each team is reported to have around $1 million to spend on players with another $120 million set to be invested in infrastructure and facilities.

With the number of Americans with Indian or South-Asian heritage swelling to well over five million, it is presumed there is an appetite for cricket amongst this diaspora. The 2024 T20 World Cup is also set to be partially held in the US, so the MLC is striking whilst the iron is hot.

In a statement, MLC co-founders Sameer Mehta and Vijay Srinivasan said, “The significant funding committed by an outstanding group of investors will allow Major League Cricket to build first-class facilities and accelerate the sport’s development across the country, bringing world-class professional cricket to the world’s largest sports market”.

Each team is absolutely loaded with international superstars, seeing the two-and-a-half-week tournament as a chance to make some good money in an otherwise quiet period for franchise T20 leagues.

Coach: Phil Simmons - Captain: Sunil Narine

The Knight Riders boast a very similar squad to the IPL team of the same name, featuring international talents such as Andre Russell, Jason Roy, and Lockie Ferguson.

Coach: Robin Peterson - Captain: Kieron Pollard

The Mumbai Indians, sorry MI New York, have the look of an absolutely stacked T20 side, with world-class talents like Rashid Khan, Tim David, Trent Boult and Kagiso Rabada in their ranks. They could well be hoisting the trophy at the end of July.

Coach: Shane Watson - Captain: Aaron Finch

The Unicorns feature both Liam Plunkett and David White, two pro cricketers who left England and South Africa respectively to move to the US with the aim to play for the US international side. Outside of that, there are numerous big names such as Shadab Khan, Marcus Stoinis, and Qais Ahmed.

Coach: Pravin Amre - Captain: Wayne Parnell

Possibly the best named team in the competition, the Orcas feature a number of talented cricketers such as Shehan Jayasuriya and Quinton de Kock, but losing Mitchell Marsh and Sikandar Raza to international duties makes their squad look a little weaker than the others.

Coach: Stephen Fleming - Captain: Faf du Plessis

The Super Kings feature some legends of the T20 game, including Faf du Plessis and Dwayne Bravo. Complementing them is some explosive batting in the form of David Miller and Devon Conway. Certainly, a team who could be in the running come finals time.

Coach: Greg Shipperd - Captain Moises Henriques

Hopefully, Moises Henriques has finished his Spotify session (look it up) and is ready to lead his charges in the inaugural MLC season. The Freedom squad features a mixture of experience in Anrich Nortje and up-and-coming talents like Tanveer Sangha as well as US international Usman Rafiq.

The first edition of MLC is being broadcast in most cricket-watching nations, with BT Sport picking up the rights in the UK, Fox Sports in Australia and Viacom18 Sports Network in India. In America itself you will have to subscribe to Willow TV to watch.

As cricket moves more and more towards a domestic cricket first approach, franchise tournaments like the MLC will become more and more commonplace, at least they will if the money is there. It could well prove to be a hit, but there is also a fairly good chance the stadiums are barely half-full and no one really knows whats going on at any point.