Major League Cricket

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, the development league for MLC, Minor League Cricket (MiLC), completed its inaugural season, which was contested by 27 franchise-based teams.

History
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 the United States as of July 2024.

Formation: 2018–2021
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 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 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 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 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 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.

Launch: 2022–2023
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 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 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 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 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, 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 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.

2024 season
In December 2023, it 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 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 the number of matches played.

Teams
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, and San Francisco as markets where 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.

Seasons

 * C: champions
 * RU: runner-up
 * SF or PO: team qualified for the semi-final stage of the competition

Venues
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 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 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 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 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.

Broadcasters
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 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
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.