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34-750: Major League Cricket ( MLC ), also known as Cognizant Major League Cricket for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league that is played in the United States. Operated by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) and sanctioned by USA Cricket , it began play on July 13, 2023, with six teams representing major US cities under a single-entity model. The first season took place over three weeks at Grand Prairie Stadium in Grand Prairie, Texas , and Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina , concluding on July 30, 2023. In 2021,

68-535: A cricket complex. Construction on the complex started by March 2018, in which two cricket grounds were scheduled to open by April 2018. They opened four more cricket grounds in September 2018 as part of its first phase. Upon opening, the complex hosted three cricket matches of the Houston Cricket League. By July of 2022, a total of 14 cricket grounds were opened at the venue. In May 2019,

102-518: A 22-team development league known as Minor League Cricket that summer as a prelude. Minor League Cricket was officially announced the following week, with plans to host a nine-week, 170-game season beginning July 4 ; however, it was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States . In October 2020 USA Cricket reaffirmed plans to launch Major League Cricket in 2022 as part of its "foundational plan" for 2020–23. On December 1, 2020, it

136-882: A cricket-specific facility that will host a Grand Prairie-based team in Major League Cricket. In March 2022, ACE discussed plans to invest $ 110 million in eight newly constructed or renovated venues for the league and possible hosting of matches during the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup (which the United States is co-hosting with the West Indies), including the aforementioned Grand Prairie Stadium, Church Street Park in Morrisville , Moosa Stadium in Pearland , Prairie View Cricket Complex in Prairie View , and new sites in Orange County (backed by

170-537: A high-quality natural turf wicket, and build a cricket pavilion, which would cater for both men and women players. It was also announced that Tanweer Ahmed, along with PVCC Head of Operations, Mangesh Chaudhari would be added to the investor group in Major League Cricket, and that they both would also co-own the Houston Hurricanes, which was announced in August of the same year. Additionally, the venue hosted

204-462: A maximum of nine can be overseas players. Following the draft, it was reported that USAC had not yet sanctioned either Major or Minor League Cricket for the 2023 season, with the ICC stating that its members should not issue No Objection Certificates (NOCs) to release players to participate at this time. Interim chairman of the board Atul Rai citing unspecified concerns and outstanding issues over how ACE

238-400: A series of practice games between two Major League Cricket squads, and a United States Training Group. The practice series featured the likes of Corey Anderson , Sami Aslam , Dane Piedt and more. Similarly, it was the home ground to the Houston Hurricanes during the inaugural season of Minor League Cricket from July 31 to September 12, 2021. It was also announced on August 28, 2021, that

272-822: A sponsorship agreement. For 2024, MLC also began to reach syndication agreements with regional sports networks , with YES Network announcing an agreement to air MI New York matches. International providers include TNT Sports in the UK and Ireland, ARY in Pakistan, and Prime Video in Australia and New Zealand. Minor League Cricket is a developmental league for Major League Cricket that completed its inaugural season in 2021. It consists of 26 franchise-based teams in four regional divisions. Unlike Major League Cricket, Minor League Cricket uses privately owned franchises. Cognizant Too Many Requests If you report this error to

306-569: Is administering the competitions, including wanting to seek a more "favorable" short-term agreement. MLC director Justin Geale stated that the sanctioning applications were with USA Cricket", and that "the recent staffing changes at USA Cricket may have contributed to any delays. In April 2023, the league was officially sanctioned by the ICC, removing a significant obstacle to the league launching in July. Play began on July 13, 2023. In December 2023 it

340-763: The New Jersey Stallions , in which the Stallions beat the Mustangs by two wickets. In November 2022, it was announced the first season of MLC will be staged from July 13–30, 2023, at Grand Prairie Stadium . The tournament will be played in a single round-robin format with 15 league matches played among six franchises before a four-match play-off phase. MLC also hopes to play matches in a to-be-constructed stadium in Los Angeles, and Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina . In February 2023, it

374-602: The United States national cricket team played its first match at this venue. By July of that same year, six cricket grounds had opened. Construction continued throughout September of that year, before ending and being ready for use in December 2019. For the first half of 2020, it would be used as a venue for the Houston Cricket League, before being used by the Houston Hurricanes as their home ground for

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408-641: The development league for MLC, Minor League Cricket (MiLC), completed its inaugural season, which was contested by 27 franchise-based teams. There have been various attempts to hold a Twenty20 (T20) cricket league in the United States, such as the short-lived Pro Cricket (which played a single season in 2004), and the American Premier League , a proposed league in partnership between the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA) and New Zealand Cricket , modelled after domestic T20 competitions. However, it has yet to properly launch in

442-779: The exhibition league of Minor League Cricket . It served as the host of the Houston Open 2021 (which was sanctioned by USA Cricket ) in early April of that year. It also hosted the United States Men's Under-19 National Championship, in which the Mid-Atlantic Zone were crowned champions. Later that month, it was also announced by USA Cricket that the venue would become the first official Major League Cricket National Cricket Center, and, as part of their joint-venture deal, they would add eight new turf practice nets and wickets, upgrading three cricket pitches to

476-460: The 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. Upon opening in September 2018, the venue hosted matches of the Houston Cricket League throughout 2019 and 2020. The United States national cricket team played their first cricket match at this venue in May 2019. The following years, it was used as the Houston Hurricanes ' home ground in both the exhibition league (in which Mayor David Allen was invited to see) and

510-625: The Knight Riders), the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds , and Marymoor Park in Redmond, Washington . The renovated venues have a budget of approximately $ 3 million each, while the three new west coast venues have a budget of $ 30 million each; ACE stated that the west coast venues would be completed by 2024, and will have a projected capacity of 10,000–20,000. As of November 2022, it was reported that work on

544-548: The USACA, which had been expelled from the International Cricket Council in September 2017 due to governance issues. The new body set a goal for cricket to reach wider, mainstream popularity in the country, where it has typically been considered a niche international sport. In an annual general meeting on February 21, 2020, it was stated that USA Cricket planned to launch Major League Cricket in 2021, and

578-432: The United States as of July 2024. In November 2018 USA Cricket announced that it was seeking partners to establish a domestic T20 league in the country by 2021, with goals to "engage existing fans and grow new ones", and spur "sustainable development of cricketing infrastructure across the United States". In May 2019, USA Cricket accepted a bid by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) for a US$ 1 billion investment, covering

612-544: The Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 231678992 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 08:52:29 GMT Prairie View Cricket Complex In January 2018, Houston developer David Wolff, along with Pakistani American businessman Tanweer Ahmed joint-purchased 86 acres of land in Prairie View, Texas , to build

646-599: The announcement of the 2023 schedule, it was confirmed that a portion of the group stage will be played at Church Street Park; due to a curfew on the use of floodlights, these matches will begin in the early evening. This was true for the 2024 season as well, with matches again being played in Grand Prairie and Morrisville. In the United States, MLC games are broadcast by Willow , with selected matches also being carried by CBS Sports Network , and over-the-top television service Sling TV also streaming matches as part of

680-622: The hopes of accelerating cricket's development across the United States. In June 2022 MLC announced the inaugural season of Minor League Cricket Youth (MiLC Youth). The inaugural season of MiLC Youth was announced to be contested between eleven teams at the Prairie View Cricket Complex in Houston starting July 25, 2022. The finals for the inaugural season took place on July 29 at between the Dallas Mustangs and

714-701: The inaugural season of Minor League Cricket . In April 2021, the venue hosted the USA Cricket -sanctioned Houston Open 2021, in which the Nepali Rhinos took the trophy. Later that month, it also hosted the United States Men's Under-19 National Championship, in which the Mid-Atlantic Zone was crowned champions. The same month, the venue hosted a series of practice matches between a United States Training Group and two Major League Cricket squads, which featured many international cricketers such as Shayan Jahangir , Dane Piedt , and others. In August 2021, it

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748-521: The league and other investments benefitting the US national teams. Its partners include Satyan Gajwani and Vineet Jain of The Times Group , and Willow TV founders Sameer Mehta and Vijay Srinivasan. As part of the agreement, ACE also handles commercial activities for T20I and ODI matches hosted by the United States. In January 2019 USA Cricket was approved as the new governing board for cricket in USA, replacing

782-527: The national team. In May 2021, the launch of Major League Cricket was delayed to 2023 due to COVID-19 and to provide additional time to develop facilities. In May 2022 Major League Cricket announced it had acquired funds of US$ 120 million as part of its Series A and A1 fundraising rounds. Investors committing to MLC featured the likes of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella , Ross Perot Jr. , Anand Rajaraman , Shantanu Narayen and more. MLC plans to use these funds to mainly build stadiums and first-class facilities in

816-528: The number of matches played. MLC began with six teams and uses a single-entity structure under which all teams are owned by ACE, with investor-operators (who have invested in the company) assigned to each team. It plans to expand to ten teams in the future, expanding from an initial 19-game season to a 34-game season by 2025. USA Cricket's CEO Iain Higgins identified Atlanta , Chicago, Los Angeles, New Jersey , New York City, and San Francisco as markets where

850-485: The other proposed pitches had not yet commenced. In February 2023, it was reported that most of the 2023 matches were set to be played in Grand Prairie, with Church Street Park set to be used as a secondary venue. Due to the summer heat in Texas, it was reported by ESPNcricinfo that most matches would be scheduled as night games, rather than scheduled in the daytime hours to attract audiences in markets such as India. With

884-422: The six teams had a purse of over $ 1 million, with $ 800,000 for overseas players and $ 300,000 for US-based players. The draft had a fixed salary cap with a maximum of $ 75,000 (first round) and a minimum of $ 2,500 (ninth round). Overseas signings were directly signed and were not part of the draft. Each franchise must have a minimum of fifteen players, with the maximum being eighteen. Out of these eighteen players,

918-454: The sport was most popular. The league's six inaugural teams are assigned to Dallas , Los Angeles , New York , San Francisco , Seattle , and Washington, D.C. Only Dallas currently has a home stadium; the league plans to build cricket stadiums in the other locales. On November 18, 2020, it was announced that ACE would lease AirHogs Stadium in Grand Prairie, Texas—home of the former Texas AirHogs independent baseball team—and convert it to

952-580: The venue hosted warm-up and practice games ahead of 2 ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 series at Moosa Stadium . Additionally, from June to July 2022, the venue was used again by the Hurricanes in their 2022 campaign of Minor League Cricket. In December of the same year, it was announced that the venue – alongside other venues such as Central Broward Stadium , Moosa Stadium , and the Grand Prairie Stadium – were likely to host matches in

986-420: The venue would be the host of the inaugural USA Cricket national men's 50-over championship, which took place from November 15-19, 2021 (changed from a November 12-20 schedule due to the revised schedule of the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Americas Qualifier ). In March 2022, it was announced that the venue would undergo a $ 3 million renovation ahead of MLC and the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup . In May 2022,

1020-501: Was announced that the IPL's Kolkata Knight Riders (co-owned by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan ) would invest in ACE. In February 2021 MLC announced plans for Minor League Cricket Youth and Major League Cricket Youth leagues, which would, alongside a MLC Jr. Championship and player development program, serve as a development system for younger players to progress towards Major League Cricket and

1054-513: Was announced that the player draft for the league's inaugural season would be held on March 19, 2023. The inaugural player draft was held on March 19, 2023, at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston . The draft was conducted over 9 rounds via a serpentine system , where the team order is reversed every round. Out of the 9 rounds, 8 were general draft picks, with the final round being exclusively for U-23 players. Each of

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1088-462: Was announced that the second season of the MLC tournament would begin on July 5, 2024, just four days after the conclusion of the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup . It was also reported that the matches would be played in Grand Prairie Stadium along with other venues. In February 2024 the lists of retained domestic and overseas players were released ahead of the domestic player draft . In March, Cognizant

1122-461: Was announced that the venue would be hosting the first inaugural United States Men's National Championship, which featured eight teams, and spanned from November 15-19, 2021 (changed from a November 12-20 schedule due to the revised schedule of the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Americas Qualifier ). The western ground in the complex hosted two official international series in April and May 2024, with

1156-413: Was named as the title sponsor for the league from the 2024 season. In May 2024 the ICC granted the tournament official List A status, resulting in the official recognition of the tournament as a "T20 league" and tournament playing records now being counted as official format statistics. Vijay Srinivasan, MLC's chief executive, later emphasized ambitions to expand the tournament to 10 teams and to increase

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