 "MLC 2023: National players need a no-objection from boards to participate")
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 longstanding cricket 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 as huge as 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,” says Tom Dunmore, vice-president of marketing, MLC. “We do know this is a country that loves sports. And we also know that cricket is one of the world’s most popular sports for a reason — it’s a tremendously entertaining game to follow.”
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Those from countries outside of cricket’s Big Three — India, Australia and England — find MLC a fruitful and competitive source of income.
Plunkett, 37, who has played the game since before the advent of T20, is conscious of the leaps the format has taken during the course of his career. “When I started out, I wouldn’t have thought I’d be sitting in America and about to play in a league here,” he says. “After the first season, more players are going to think about this (MLC) as a viable career opportunity”.
However, for many of Plunkett’s compatriots, and indeed any Indian player, joining the league is possible only after a ‘no objection’ from their national boards. Or else, they end up risking their prospective international careers for the chance to make money.
One player who has done so 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.