Amid all the big T20 tournaments around the world. The United States also introduced its own kind of T20 league, consisting of six teams. This competition is known as Major League Cricket, and the first edition of the tournament got underway on July 13.
Four out of six teams in the tournament are owned or co-owned by Indian Premier League franchises. The Texas Super Kings faced the Los Angeles Knight Riders in the season’s opener in Dallas. TSK registered a comprehensive win over Sunil Narine and his men by 69 runs in the first MLC game.
Devon Conway (55) and David Miller (61) were the stars with the bat, scoring half-centuries to help Texas win the opening encounter. Despite Andre Russell’s 55-run knock, the Knight Riders fell short and were bundled out for just 112 runs. However, other big names like Martin Guptill and Rilee Rossouw failed.
Meanwhile, in a recent interaction with the BBC, former English pacer Liam Plunkett opened up about the opportunity of playing in the MLC 2023 and also stated that this tournament can become one of the best T20 competitions in the world after the Indian Premier League.
Plunkett said, “It can be right up there just behind the IPL. Obviously it will be hard to overtake the IPL but MLC is being taken very seriously and America is the biggest place in the world for sports. Nobody knows and that’s the exciting part, it is unknown. This huge potential.”
The first MLC edition will have a total of 19 games, including the final. Apart from Texas Super Kings and Los Angeles Knight Riders, the other four teams are MI New York, Seattle Orcas, San Francisco Unicorns, and Washington Freedom.
The former English pacer also admitted that the Americans are passionate about sports, and if cricket is exciting and can create a buzz, then there will be nothing to stop them from getting involved in it.
