The customary of Major League Cricket within the US has left veteran Aussie star Moises Henriques “extremely surprised” and thinks the event might create the primary vital wave of American cricketers.
Henriques, who’s captain of the NSW-linked Washington Freedom franchise, says there will not be many “domestic” gamers within the competitors who will not be latest migrants from different cricket-playing nations, however thinks the standard of the gamers and grounds will assist entice native expertise to the game.
He stated the stacked batting line-up of his aspect, which options 9 worldwide gamers within the squad, meant his position could be considerably downgraded from within the BBL with the Sixers.
The 36-year-old has lengthy been a middle-order enforcer for the Sixers with teammate Jordan Silk on the different finish turning the strike over, however he stated the usual of this competitors was at one other stage.
He stated the Freedom have been armed with some “scary” worldwide expertise on the event, with the six franchises permitted to discipline six worldwide gamers per sport – twice as many because the Big Bash.
“I think I might be the Jordan Silk to (NZ batter) Glenn Phillips, he’s going to be the guy smacking it and I’ll be the guy coming in behind him either to fix the ship or continue on the back of his coat tails,” Henriques stated.
He stated the event will measure its success on whether or not it could lure native expertise to the game who can play on the highest ranges.
“I was extremely surprised with how high quality the domestic players are, but I think at this stage, a lot of those players have only recently moved to the US from other cricket-playing nations,” he stated.
“I think where we will measure this tournament’s success will be hopefully in years to come we’ll have domestic players with American accents … I think that will be the real feather in the cap when those domestic players have been here for a long time.
“Who knows, maybe in 10 or 15 years’ time we’re going to hear a captain in the IPL with an American accent rather than six captains in the US league with foreign accents.”
The event relies in Dallas, Texas throughout its first week and can transfer to a second venue in North Carolina earlier than returning to Dallas for the playoff video games.
“(Dallas) is a brand new square … I can’t say definitely how the pitches are going to play, but they look great,” Henriques stated.
“It looks like there’s going to be a lot of runs – I think from what I’ve seen of the facilities so far it’s going to be a really good broadcast product, so it’s a pretty amazing opportunity for cricket here.”
The Freedom misplaced their first match however beat the Texas Super Kings by six runs on Sunday, as Australian Matt Short crushed 80 from 50 balls and Henriques chipped in with 21 and 1-5.
Major League Cricket abroad gamers
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
