Date, schedule, format, overseas players, TV information and more ahead of the inaugural 2023 edition of Major League Cricket
Major League Cricket is the newest T20 franchise league, this time in USA.
The tournament will begin on July 13 (July 14 in the UK), with the final group match taking place on July 25.
The four-team playoffs will begin on July 27, culminating in the final on July 30 (July 31 in the UK).
MLC will be split between Texas' Grand Prairie Stadium and Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina. Both venues will host group matches while the knockout matches will all take place at Grand Prairie Stadium.
XIs must include at least five American players [ICC]
There are six teams involved in MLC: Los Angeles Knight Riders, MI New York, San Francisco Unicorns, Seattle Orcas, Texas Super Kings, and Washington Freedom.
Four of the teams are owned by IPL franchise owners.
The six teams will contest a single round robin, with the top four teams progressing to the playoffs.
As in the IPL, the first and second-placed teams will play a qualifier fixture, with the winner advancing straight to the final. The loser will have a second chance to reach the final when they face the winner of the eliminator (third versus fourth) in the challenger.
Each team has a roster of 16-19 players, including a maximum of nine overseas players. They must also have at least one USA-qualified player under the age of 23 and 10 domestic players. Final XIs can include six overseas players.
Jason Roy is the among the headline names, with the Surrey and England batter representing Los Angeles Knight Riders. He gave up his incremental contract with the ECB in order to play MLC but is still available to play for England.
He will be joined at the Knight Riders by the likes of Sunil Narine, Adam Zampa, Rilee Rossouw and Andre Russell while Kieron Pollard will captain a MI New York side including Trent Boult, Rashid Khan, Tim David, Nicholas Pooran, and Kagiso Rabada.
Sunil Narine, Aaron Finch and Rashid Khan are among the overseas players [Ashley Allen/James Worsfold/Pankaj Nangia/Getty Images]
Both San Francisco Unicorns and Washington Freedom have strong Australian contingents thanks to their links to Cricket Victoria and Cricket New South Wales, respectively. Aaron Finch will captain the Unicorns while Moises Henriques is at the helm for Freedom.
Seattle Orcas' squad includes Quinton de Kock, Andrew Tye, Heinrich Klaasen, and Shimron Hetymer, while Texas Super Kings, led by Faf du Plessis, count Devon Conway, David Miller and Dwayne Bravo among their overseas players.
Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and West Indies dominate the overseas player pool, while there are also representatives from Afghanistan, Namibia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India.
In the UK, Major League Cricket will be shown on BT Sport.
In USA and Canada, Willow TV and Sling TV have the broadcast rights.
Elsewhere in the world, Sports18 will show all of the matches in India while in Australia, it will be on Fox Sports. Viewers in New Zealand can catch all of the action on Sky Sport.
Welcome to www.thecricketer.com - the online home of the world’s oldest cricket magazine. Breaking news, interviews, opinion and cricket goodness from every corner of our beautiful sport, from village green to national arena.