Four Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises are set to be part of the Major League Cricket (MLC), a new T20 franchise league in the USA. This tournament will take place in July 2023. As per reports Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Capitals have all bought stakes in the MLC and will be taking on franchises in major cities across the USA.
The five-time IPL champions will be taking over the New York franchise, while the Super Kings will own the franchise in Texas with Knight Riders taking a team from Los Angeles and the Capitals will have the Seattle-based franchise. Based on these reports by Cricinfo, four out of the six teams in MLC overall will be helmed by IPL franchises.
The Capitals will partner with Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella as the owners of the Seattle franchise. A press release published by the MLC confirmed the Seattle franchise would be called Seattle Orcas.
Along with Nadella and GMR, the other investors in the Orcas will be Soma Somasegar (managing director of Madrona Ventures), Samir Bodas (co-founder and CEO, Icertis), Ashok Krishnamurthi (managing partner, GreatPoint Ventures) and Sanjay Parthasarathy (former senior executive at Microsoft and Avalara).
The two other franchises in the league will be from Washington DC and San Francisco. The Washington DC franchise will be called Washington Freedom and is owned by local American investor Sanjay Govil. Freedom has partnered up with New South Wales Cricket, to help them build the squad and put a cricketing structure in place.
Whereas a similar strategic partnership has been created for the San Francisco franchise. This team will be owned by Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan, who will be teaming up with Cricket Victoria.
The inaugural season of MLC will take place between July 13 and 30 in the Dallas suburb of Grand Prairie, Texas. The tournament will also have a player draft for American players which is scheduled for March 19. Each squad size will have a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 18 players and nine overseas players.
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