July 13, 2023, will see the start of the inaugural season of Major League Cricket (MLC) – America’s first-ever professional franchise cricket league sanctioned by the ICC.
This new league on the blocks has got the fans excited as this is not just another T20 league, but it is a big bid of the organizers in the USA to promote cricket through a number of renowned, world-class T20 players that will on show in different cities of America.
In the past, there had been a number of attempts to have a big T20 league in America, but nothing has ever matched the hype and the star power of the upcoming MLC tournament. This will act as a significant boost to attract viewers in America, which is also set to partly host the 2024 T20 World Cup, joint with West Indies.
The MLC will target the large cricket-passionate fanbase in India and Asia overall.
Here are 3 interesting things about Major League Cricket (MLC) Season 1 for Indians fans:
4 out of 6 teams in MLC are having IPL owners
The inaugural season of Major League Cricket (MLC) includes 6 teams, four of which have IPL owners. The teams in the first season of MLC are Texas Super Kings (owned by Chennai Super Kings), MI New York (owned by Mumbai Indians’ subsidiary Indiawin Sports), Los Angeles Knight Riders (owned by Kolkata Knight Riders), and Seattle Orcas (owned by Delhi Capitals’ GMR Group), and the other two other teams are Washington Freedom and San Francisco Unicorns, both of which have Indian stakeholders.
10 Indian players in MLC
The MLC season one will have a handful of Indian players or of Indian origin, the biggest of the names is that of Ambati Rayudu, who recently retired from IPL and all forms of Indian cricket.
Indian players in MLC season 1: Ambati Rayudu (Texas Super Kings), Unmukt Chand (Los Angeles Knight Riders), Monank Patel (MI New York), Harmeet Singh (Seattle Orcas), Tajinder Singh (San Francisco Unicorns), Saurabh Netravalkar (Washington Freedom), Chaitanya Bishnoi (San Francisco Unicorns), Sarabjeet Ladda (MI New York), Smit Patel (San Francisco Unicorns), Milind Kumar (Texas Super Kings).
MLC broadcaster in India:
Where to watch Major League Cricket (MLC) 2023 Live in India?
Viacom 18 has secured the rights for MLC in India and the matches will be telecasted LIVE on Sports 18 1SD and Sports 18 1HD TV channels in India