MLC: Teams, players, format, fixtures, and everything else you need to know
Big-league cricket is coming to the USA - here's a primer on what to expect
Yes, but wait. This could be different. Franchise cricket is going to the USA for the first time, after all.
Of course they do. And as far back as ... 1844! In fact USA was part of the first cricket match involving two countries (as opposed to clubs or other domestic clashes). That was against Canada, at the St George's Cricket Club ground in New York.
MLC has been in the works for a while and, after multiple delays, it will finally see the light of day on July 13. It is being operated by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) and has been sanctioned by USA Cricket. The ICC has also given official sanction for the league.
Los Angeles Knight Riders, MI New York, San Francisco Unicorns, Seattle Orcas, Texas Super Kings and Washington Freedom.
Four of the six teams are owned by IPL franchise owners.
Two venues. The first eight league games will be held at Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas before the teams move to Church Street Park Stadium in Morrisville for the next seven outings. The playoffs will be staged at Grand Prairie again.
The Grand Prairie is a former baseball park, and was redeveloped into a cricket stadium in 2022. The new stadium has a capacity of close to 7000. The other venue, Church Street Park, is in Morrisville, North Carolina, and has a capacity of around 3500, which can be expanded up to 5000.
Yes, true, but two of the T20Is on India's tour of the Caribbean are being played there in August. So...
We can only know once the games begin, but MLC recently announced that the tickets for the opening fixture between Texas and Los Angeles have been sold out. South Asian and Caribbean expats make up most of the cricket community there, and much of the USA national team, too. You'd expect them to come to watch.
In the USA and Canada, it's on Willow TV. In India, it will be on Sports18 and Jio. If you are in Australia, MLC will be on Fox, SportsMax in the Caribbean, SKY NZ in New Zealand, A Sports in Pakistan, SuperSport in South Africa and BT Sport in the UK.
Los Angles have Jason Roy, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell. New York have Rashid Khan, Trent Boult and Kieron Pollard. San Francisco have Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis and Corey Anderson. Texas have Faf du Plessis, Devon Conway and David Miller. Seattle have Quinton de Kock, Shimron Hetmyer, Imad Wasim and Sikandar Raza. And Washington have Anrich Nortje and Marco Jansen.
Each side can have a maximum of 19 and a minimum of 16 players on their roster. A maximum of nine international players are allowed in the squads. Each squad needs to have at least one USA Under-23 player, and must have at least ten domestic players, which is being done to give the next generation of American talents a chance to rub shoulders with the best.
The domestic players were signed via a player draft, which was held at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston on March 19. Harmeet Singh, who was part of India's 2012 Under-19 World Cup-winning side, was the first pick, snapped up by Seattle. Steven Taylor was the first American-born player picked in the draft, by New York, while another former India U-19 start Unmukt Chand, who is in the USA now, went to Los Angeles.
Apart from Chand and Harmeet, we have Chaitanya Bishnoi, Tajinder Singh, Shubham Ranjane and Smit Patel. All of these players have retired from the Indian domestic circuit. Ambati Rayudu was also slated to take part but withdrew in the wake of the BCCI's proposal to introduce a year-long cooling-off period for retired players before they can participate in overseas T20 leagues.
Yep, we do. Texas: Faf du Plessis. Los Angeles: Sunil Narine. Seattle: Wayne Parnell. New York: Kieron Pollard. San Francisco: Aaron Finch. Washington: Moises Henriques.
No. While they are being played in the T20 format, the records will not reflect in the players' profiles because the USA - like the UAE, where the ILT20 is held - is not a Full-Member nation.
Ashish Pant is a sub-editor with ESPNcricinfo