By Chintan Shah, Director – Content Management
Americans have been fans of men swinging their bats at fast-moving balls for around 200 years. Only this time around, curved bats will be replaced by flat ones as Major League Cricket (MLC) aims to take the sport to new shores.
Backed by big money (read Indian-origin venture capitalists) and a revived ambition to introduce cricket to the land of dreams, Major League Cricket 2023 was inaugurated on July 13 in Texas.
There have been previous attempts to woo the American audience with our version of the bat and ball sport, with Pro Cricket in 2004, an Inter-State Cricket Cup a year later and most recently, the American Premier League in 2021. But none truly lived up to the hype.
However, things look different this time.
Why cricket is here to stay in the US
For starters, there are world-class players roped in by all six teams, putting Major League Cricket on par with some of the newer franchise-based tournaments of the world like SA20, ILT20, The Hundred and Bangladesh Premier League.
Aaron Finch, Jason Roy, Rashid Khan, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Kagiso Rabada, Dwayne Bravo, Quinton de Kock and Faf du Plzessis are some of the big names plying their trade in the new league this year.
Major League Cricket might not be another Indian Premier League but IPL franchises own four of the six MLC sides.
Chennai Super Kings co-own the Texas Super Kings; the Knight Riders Group is behind the Los Angeles Knight Riders; MI New York is owned by Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals’ GMR Group has a stake in Seattle Orcas.
San Francisco Unicorns have joined hands with Cricket Victoria while Washington Freedom have brought in the expertise of Cricket New South Wales as operating and coaching partners.
These are some of the most credible names in world cricket taking care of the MLC teams, which elevates faith in the functioning of the league – a missing element from previous attempts of developing cricket in the USA.
Along with big names running the teams and league, MLC is also backed by some of America’s most influential personalities such as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen, Anand Rajaraman of Cambrian Ventures and real estate tycoon Ross Perot Jr.
There are other factors as well working in favour of MLC.
The league is sanctioned by the International Cricket Council (ICC), a big step in making any new tournament open to overseas talent.
And with the next T20 World Cup to be co-hosted by the USA and the West Indies in 2024, it is the perfect opportunity to seed the sport before the grand spectacle.
Eye on the bigger picture
Along with making MLC the biggest cricket tournament in the Americas, the organisers are also developing the sport for long term sustainability.
The $100million-something funding acquired by MLC will be used to build cricket-specific stadiums and infrastructure, and focus on grassroot development creating a pipeline of players for Minor League Cricket and Major League Cricket.
So there’s money, there’s expertise, there’s vision and there is a market of over 300 million Americans who are ready to embrace the new sport.
With so much working in favour of MLC, it looks like cricket will finally find its footing in the USA.
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