America’s Cricket Aspirations: Hosting the T20 World Cup and Launching Major League Cricket (MLC)
The first season of IPL was played in April 2008. Pakistani cricketers played in it. Then in November 2008, Mumbai was attacked and Pakistani players were banned from IPL. In 2016, Pakistan launched its league, PSL, to retaliate. A lot of efforts were made, but even after 9 seasons, the league has not even come close to the standards of IPL. Big Bash League and The Hundred also tried to do so but failed.
Now America is going to host the Cricket World Cup for the first time. The 9th T20 World Cup will start jointly between America and West Indies from June 2. This time America is trying to make its place in world cricket through the World Cup. America is trying to make its franchise cricket league MLC so big that it can compete with IPL before the World Cup.
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Understanding the Structure and Naming Strategy of Major League Cricket (MLC)
Major League Cricket started only last year. After the World Cup, its second season will be played in July. Next, we will understand the entire structure of MLC and try to know how this league can benefit from the World Cup.
Baseball, a sport involving a bat and ball, is already very popular in the US. The franchise-based league of the sport, MLB means Major League Baseball, is held there. On the same lines, America has also named its cricket league, so that baseball fans can also be attracted to this league. Apart from this, the name of the soccer (football) league there is also MLS on the same lines, which means Major League Soccer.
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Early Investors and Launch of Major League Cricket (MLC)
The US Cricket Board has talked about starting a franchise-based cricket league in 2018. Overcoming the initial hurdles, $120 million i.e. about Rs one thousand crore was raised for the league in May 2022.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Shah Rukh Khan co-owned IPL franchise KKR, technology entrepreneur Anand Rajaraman, and former Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayan were among the early investors. The first season of the MLC was played in July 2023 with 6 teams. All the teams consisted of Indian investors. Actor Shah Rukh Khan is a co-owner of IPL franchise KKR, IndiaWin Sports, the company that runs Mumbai Indians (MI), GMR Sports, the owner of Delhi Capitals, and Chennai Super Kings bought teams with different partners.
Structure and Results of MLC’s First Season:
The first season of the MLC had 15 group-stage matches played between July 14 and July 26. The four playoff matches took place on July 27, 28 and 30. All 19 games were played at the Dallas and Morrisville stadiums. The group stage saw 6 teams playing 5-5 matches, i.e. one team played a 1-1 match with the other 5 teams.
Like the IPL, the first season of the MLC had the top-4 teams qualifying for the playoffs. MI New York played the final match after winning the Eliminator and Qualifier-2. The team defeated Seattle Orcas by 7 wickets in the final and won the title of the first season.
Nicholas Pooran scored a century, he was also the highest run-scorer in the tournament. MI’s Trent Boult took the highest number of 22 wickets. American Cameron Gannon was the Man of the Tournament by taking 11 wickets for Seattle Orcas.
Upcoming Second Season of MLC
The final match of the T20 World Cup will be held on June 29. Six days after this, the second season of MLC will start in America on July 6. This time also matches will be played in only 2 stadiums, but 21 matches will be played in the group stadium instead of 15. A team will play 7 matches instead of 5. Season 2 of MLC will start immediately after the World Cup, which will connect the global cricket audience with the American audience. The matches of the second season will start at 12:30 pm and 6 am Indian time. According to America, this time it will be night, so more fans will reach the stadium and watch the match.
Challenges for MLC in Competing with IPL:
The brand value of IPL is Rs 89 thousand crore, while the brand value of MLC is Rs 1 thousand crore. Rs 1,000 crore is spent on the salaries of players in IPL, while only Rs 57 crore is spent on the salaries of players in MLC.
While cricket is not among the top 10 most watched sports in America, no other sport is watched more than cricket in India. Major League Cricket (MLC) is currently in its initial stages, where 6 foreign players can play in the playing-11. In comparison, only 4 foreign players play in IPL. The biggest reason for the success of IPL in India is Indian players. Therefore, if MLC has to compete with IPL, it will first have to improve the quality of players in its country. Which now seems to take a lot of time.
Expansion Plans and ICC Recognition for Major League Cricket
The International Cricket Council approved List-A for Major League Cricket on May 28. This means that now the statistics of players and teams in this tournament will also be counted in T20 records. The second season of MLC will begin on July 6, just 6 days after the T20 World Cup.
In the second season, there will be an increase from 19 to 25 matches. It is planned to increase to 34 matches by 2025, increasing the number of teams from 6 to 8. The MLC chief executive said the MLC plans to eventually make it a 10-team tournament. Barring the IPL, no country has ever had 10 teams in any franchise tournament. It will be important to see how the T20 World Cup will affect Major League Cricket.
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