Big payouts, big ambitions: With MLC, cricket makes major strides in the US

Major League Cricket, which kicks off on July 14, is no IPL, but aspires to become one of the world's biggest franchise competitions

On July 14, when the Texas Super Kings take on the Los Angeles Knight Riders in the Major League Cricket (MLC) at the former’s home ground, the Grand Prairie Stadium, it will be the culmination of a long standing cricket pipe dream — to conquer the land across the Atlantic. A reported $120 million in funding has been pushed into the league, with some influential backers from the technology and media sectors — including Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, who is part of the Seattle ownership group.

Indian cricket, but of course, is a key driver of all of this, and the owners of Indian Premier League (IPL) clubs have stakes in four of the six MLC teams this season. These are the Knight Riders Group, Mumbai Indians, GMR Group (co-owners of Delhi Capitals) and Chennai Super Kings.

Adding to this are the many names familiar to fans across cricketverse. At the auction in March this year, Seattle Orcas made the first pick, selecting an all-rounder, 30-year-old Harmeet Singh — a member of the India squad that won the 2012 U-19 World Cup — for $75,000. The captain of that U-19 team, Unmukt Chand, was picked by the LA Knight Riders. And four years after winning the World Cup with England, Liam Plunkett will bowl for the San Francisco Unicorns. 

MLC has the financial heft to offer salaries comparable with competitions such as Australia’s Big Bash League, England and Wales’ The Hundred and the United Arab Emirates’s International League T20 (ILT20). The salary cap per team is understood to be slightly above $1.1 million, of which $320,000 were spent on American players. Franchises are allocated $830,000 for nine overseas players, with the average coming to approximately $98,889.

It might not be the IPL, but MLC isn’t lacking in quality. Plunkett’s Unicorns also have the former Australia limited overs captain, Aaron Finch, and his 2021 Men’s T20 World Cup-winning teammate, Marcus Stoinis. The MI New York team has New Zealand fast bowler Trent Boult, Afghan sensation Rashid Khan and South African phenomenon Kagiso Rabada.

All in all, expect fireworks, even if they are happening in a time zone far away. The MLC, in fact, counts on this, the interest from overseas hopefully launching the sport into the larger American consciousness.

The league’s broadcast partner for India is Viacom18. 

“We have no illusions that besides expats from cricket-loving countries, the level of understanding of cricket in the general populace (in the US) is low,” Tom Dunmore, vice-president of marketing, MLC, says. “We do know this is a country that loves sports, and we also know cricket is one of the world’s most popular sports for a reason — it’s a tremendously entertaining game to follow. The fact that we are able to bring the world’s best players to MLC is important; it showcases the game at its highest level, something Americans are used to seeing in top domestic leagues.”

Besides the concern about the timing, with the Ashes underway and India’s tour of West Indies in the offing, it begs the question: Just how much cricket is too much? Then, perhaps, it is also important to note that the MLC will kick off merely a week after USA finished their ICC Cricket World Cup qualifier campaigns. 

The MLC is also focused on elevating the standard of the national team itself, and Dunmore says that a significant part of the investment is focused on developing grassroots competitions, academies and cricket facilities across America. 

“We know there are many millions of cricket fans in America who not only follow and watch international cricket, but also participate in the game,” he says. “The cricket community is passionate and invests alongside us to grow the game’s grassroots, evidenced by the success of our developmental league, Minor League Cricket, which has 26 independently owned teams around the country, and more than 20 MLC affiliated academies.”

All of this has been enough to convince the big names. Those from countries outside of cricket’s Big Three – India, Australia and England – find it a fruitful and competitive income source.

Liam Plunkett, 37, who has played the game since before the advent of T20, is mindful of the leaps the format has taken within the course of his own career. “Obviously, I wouldn’t have thought I’d be sitting in America and about to embark on playing in a league here when I started out,” he says. “But after we have the first season out of the way, I think more players are going to think about this as a viable career opportunity.”

And therein lies the point of contention with the old establishment. For a game that thrives on national rivalries, cricket is fast turning the way of football, with franchise format leagues more frequently littered across the calendar than tri-nation or two-nation series. There remains a fear that supplanting the latter may well be a death knell for the game as we know it. 

Plunkett, while keen to not take sides on whether this is right or wrong, points out that the leagues are a great opportunity for players to offer their skills, earn money and travel the world.

While the risks for Plunkett are minimal — his wife is from Philadelphia and he lives there now, and has been involved with growing the Minor League Cricket community — for many of his compatriots, and indeed any Indian player, even considering joining the league means getting a ‘no objection’ from their national board. It involves risking your prospective international career for the chance to make money. 

One player who has done exactly that, though, is English batsman Jason Roy, who forfeited the final months of his contract with the English Cricket Board (ECB) to join the LA Knight Riders. It is said that Roy, who was on a reported $90,000 incremental contract with the ECB, is set to earn over $387,000 over the course of two seasons playing in the MLC.

“There’s a lot of passion for the game here,” Plunkett says. “I hope there will be more players ready to ride the wave together, so we can grow this into the biggest franchise competitions in the world.”

 MLC guide

* Funding: $120 mn

* No. of teams: 6

* Salary cap per team: A little over $1.1 mn, of which $320,000 spent on American players

* Franchises allocated $830,000 for nine overseas players

* Broadcast partner for India: Viacom18