The 2023 Major League Cricket season (also known as MLC 2023) was the inaugural season of Major League Cricket,[1] a franchise Twenty20 cricket league established in 2019 by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) in the United States.[2] The season was hosted at two venues, Grand Prairie StadiuminGrand Prairie, Texas and Church Street ParkinMorrisville, North Carolina.[3] The season was played from 13 to 30 July 2023,[4] with MI New York defeating the Seattle Orcas by seven wickets to win the inaugural title.[5][6]
Dates | 13 – 30 July 2023 |
---|---|
Administrator(s) | American Cricket Enterprises USA Cricket |
Cricket format | Twenty20 |
Tournament format(s) | Round-robin and play-offs |
Host(s) | ![]() |
Champions | MI New York (1st title) |
Runners-up | Seattle Orcas |
Participants | 6 |
Matches | 19 |
Attendance | 70,000 (3,684 per match) |
Player of the series | Nicholas Pooran (MI New York) |
Most runs | Nicholas Pooran (MI New York) (388) |
Most wickets | Trent Boult (MI New York) (22) |
Official website | majorleaguecricket.com |
2024 → |
The tournament surpassed expectations financially, generating a reported $8 million in revenue.[7] The tournament also garnered positive and optimistic outlooks on the future of cricket in the United States.[8][9]
Major League Cricket announced in November 2022 that its inaugural season would be played at Grand Prairie Stadium starting July 13 and concluding July 30.[10] MLC also revealed that the tournament would be played in a single round-robin format with fifteen league matches played among six franchises before a four-match play-off phase.[11][12]
In March 2023, the teams for the tournament were announced ahead of the league's inaugural draft—called the Texas Super Kings, the Seattle Orcas, the Los Angeles Knight Riders, the Washington Freedom, the MI New York and the San Francisco Unicorns, respectively.[13][14] The draft for the season was then held on March 19, with Harmeet Singh being picked first overall and Aaron Finch and Quinton de Kock among others highlighting the draft.[15][16] In the buildup to the season opener, teams signed multiple other players including Jason Roy, Adam Zampa and Moises Henriques.[17]
In April, USA Cricket—the governing body of cricket in the United States—officially sanctioned the tournament following a dispute with tournament organizers, American Cricket Enterprises, that threatened to delay the launch of MLC.[18][19] Tournament fixtures were announced on June 12—nearly two months later.[20][21] In addition, it also revealed that the tournament would be held at two venues, Grand Prairie Stadium and Church Street Park for the group stage,[22][23] while all play-off matches and the final would be held at Grand Prairie Stadium. Tickets for the matches were also made available on the same day.[24]
Teams were announced by MLC in March 2023, with team coaches and captains being announced in the months following.[14]
Franchise | Head coach | Captain |
---|---|---|
Los Angeles Knight Riders | Phil Simmons | Sunil Narine |
MI New York | Robin Peterson | Kieron Pollard |
San Francisco Unicorns | Shane Watson | Aaron Finch |
Seattle Orcas | Pravin Amre | Wayne Parnell |
Texas Super Kings | Stephen Fleming | Faf du Plessis |
Washington Freedom | Greg Shipperd | Moises Henriques |
A minimum of 16 players and a maximum of 19 players could be selected by the teams with a maximum of nine overseas players. The teams could select nine local players in the draft and another one as a wildcard. All teams released their squads ahead of the start of the season.[25][26]
Los Angeles Knight Riders | MI New York | San Francisco Unicorns | Seattle Orcas | Texas Super Kings | Washington Freedom |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Matches were held at two venues: Grand Prairie's Grand Prairie Stadium, with a capacity of 7,000 (expandable to 15,000) and Morrisville, North Carolina's Church Street Park, with a capacity of 3,500.
Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | NR | Pts | NRR | Qualification |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Seattle Orcas | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0.725 | Advanced to Qualifier |
2 | Texas Super Kings | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0.570 | |
3 | Washington Freedom | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0.097 | Advanced to Eliminator |
4 | MI New York | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 1.004 | |
5 | San Francisco Unicorns | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | −0.303 | |
6 | Los Angeles Knight Riders | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 2 | −2.028 |
Texas Super Kings |
v |
Los Angeles Knight Riders |
David Miller 61 (42) |
Andre Russell 55 (34) |
Texas Super Kings won by 69 runs |
San Francisco Unicorns |
v |
MI New York |
Corey Anderson 91 (52) |
Tim David53* (28) |
San Francisco Unicorns won by 22 runs |
Washington Freedom |
v |
Seattle Orcas |
Akeal Hosein33* (22) |
Nauman Anwar 48 (37) |
Seattle Orcas won by 5 wickets |
Seattle Orcas |
v |
San Francisco Unicorns |
Heinrich Klaasen 53 (31) |
Shadab Khan 36 (23) |
Seattle Orcas won by 35 runs |
Washington Freedom |
v |
Texas Super Kings |
Matthew Short 80 (50) |
Dwayne Bravo76* (39) |
Washington Freedom won by 6 runs |
MI New York |
v |
Los Angeles Knight Riders |
Unmukt Chand 26 (26) |
MI New York won by 105 runs |
Texas Super Kings |
v |
MI New York |
Devon Conway 74 (55) |
Shayan Jahangir 41 (38) |
Texas Super Kings won by 17 runs |
San Francisco Unicorns |
v |
Los Angeles Knight Riders |
Matthew Wade 78 (41) |
Jason Roy 45 (21) |
San Francisco Unicorns won by 21 runs |
Los Angeles Knight Riders |
v |
Washington Freedom |
Andre Russell70* (37) |
Matthew Short 43 (35) |
Washington Freedom won by 6 wickets |
Texas Super Kings |
v |
Seattle Orcas |
Dwayne Bravo 39 (39) |
Quinton de Kock 53 (36) |
Seattle Orcas won by 8 wickets |
Washington Freedom |
v |
San Francisco Unicorns |
Moises Henriques 30 (27) |
Corey Anderson 34 (34) |
Washington Freedom won by 30 runs |
Match 12 |
Seattle Orcas |
v |
Los Angeles Knight Riders |
Shehan Jayasuriya60* (45) |
Rilee Rossouw78* (38) |
Los Angeles Knight Riders won by 2 wickets |
Washington Freedom |
v |
MI New York |
Glenn Phillips 47 (35) |
Nicholas Pooran62* (33) |
MI New York won by 8 wickets |
San Francisco Unicorns |
v |
Texas Super Kings |
Matthew Wade 49 (30) |
Milind Kumar 52 (42) |
Texas Super Kings won by 3 wickets |
MI New York |
v |
Seattle Orcas |
Nicholas Pooran 68 (34) |
Heinrich Klassen 110* (44) |
Seattle Orcas won by 2 wickets |
Qualifier / Eliminator | Challenger | Final | |||||||||||
July 27, 2023 – Grand Prairie Stadium, Texas, 19:30 CDT | July 30, 2023 – Grand Prairie Stadium, Texas, 19:30 CDT | ||||||||||||
1 | Seattle Orcas | 127/1 (15 overs) | QW | Seattle Orcas | 183/9 (20 overs) | ||||||||
2 | Texas Super Kings | 126/9 (20 overs) | July 28, 2023 – Grand Prairie Stadium, Texas, 19:30 CDT | CW | MI New York | 184/3 (16 overs) | |||||||
QL | Texas Super Kings | 158 (20 overs) | |||||||||||
July 27, 2023 – Grand Prairie Stadium, Texas, 15:30 CDT | EW | MI New York | 162/4 (19 overs) | ||||||||||
3 | Washington Freedom | 125/9 (20 overs) | |||||||||||
4 | MI New York | 141/7 (20 overs) | |||||||||||
MI New York |
v |
Washington Freedom |
Dewald Brevis 57 (41) |
Marco Jansen 28 (18) |
MI New York won by 16 runs |
Texas Super Kings |
v |
Seattle Orcas |
Daniel Sams26* (25) |
Quinton de Kock88* (50) |
Seattle Orcas won by 9 wickets |
Texas Super Kings |
v |
MI New York |
Devon Conway 38 (35) |
Dewald Brevis41* (33) |
MI New York won by 6 wickets |
Seattle Orcas |
v |
MI New York |
Quinton de Kock 87 (52) |
Nicholas Pooran 137* (55) |
MI New York won by 7 wickets |
Player | Team | Innings | Runs | High score |
---|---|---|---|---|
Nicholas Pooran | MI New York | 8 | 388 | 137* |
Quinton de Kock | Seattle Orcas | 7 | 264 | 88* |
Heinrich Klaasen | 6 | 235 | 110* | |
Devon Conway | Texas Super Kings | 7 | 221 | 74 |
Tim David | MI New York | 7 | 209 | 53* |
Player | Team | Matches | Wickets | Best bowling |
---|---|---|---|---|
Trent Boult | MI New York | 8 | 22 | 4/20 |
Cameron Gannon | Seattle Orcas | 7 | 11 | 4/23 |
Andrew Tye | 7 | 11 | 3/32 | |
Imad Wasim | 7 | 10 | 2/23 | |
Saurabh Netravalkar | Washington Freedom | 6 | 10 | 6/9 |
On July 28, 2023, a list of end of season awards was announced.[35]
Name | Team | Award |
---|---|---|
Nicholas Pooran | MI New York | Most Valuable Player |
Nicholas Pooran | MI New York | Leading run scorer |
Trent Boult | MI New York | Leading wicket taker |
Cameron Gannon | Seattle Orcas | Domestic Player of the Series |
In July 2023, Major League Cricket (MLC) announced that its inaugural season will be broadcast live in major cricketing nations.[36]
Country | Television channel | Internet streaming applications |
---|---|---|
India[37][38] | Sports18 | JioCinema |
United States & Canada[39] |
Willow TV |
|
Australia[40] | Fox Cricket | |
Pakistan[41] | A Sports |