Major League Cricket, a one season-old T20 event within the US, has secured official List A standing from the International Cricket Council in a serious enhance for the game in North America.
MLC plans to develop from six to 10 groups to boost cricket’s profile within the profitable US sports activities market which is dominated by basketball, baseball and American soccer.
“We are really excited for the news as it’s a recognition of the standard and high quality of players taking part in the tournament,” event director Justin Geale informed ESPNcricinfo.
“By awarding MLC List A status for the upcoming season, it acknowledges the strength and growing stature of the tournament and ultimately will help to enhance the credibility of the sport in the USA on a global scale.”
The US is co-hosting this 12 months’s males’s Twenty20 World Cup with West Indies and the 2024 MLC will begin on July 5, per week after the worldwide event ends.
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting is head coach of Washington Freedom and West Indian Kieron Pollard, South Africa’s Faf du Plessis and Australian Aaron Finch are amongst high-profile gamers who’ve signed up for MLC groups.
“It was always intended to be a 10-team league,” MLC chief govt Vijay Srinivasan informed the Guardian. “Studies show that we are a big enough country, with a big enough demographic to support 10 teams.”
“We had 19 games in our first season, will have 25 in our second. I think we want to get to 34 next year, and just gradually keep expanding.”
Four IPL (Indian Premier League) franchises both personal groups in MLC or have invested within the league. IPL champions Kolkata Knight Riders personal the Los Angeles franchise and Mumbai Indians have purchased MLC champions MI New York.
The US males’s crew just lately beat Bangladesh in a Twenty20 collection, their first collection victory over an ICC Full Member nation, forward of their first look on the T20 World Cup which runs from June 1-29.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
