The debut season of USA’s Major League Cricket (MLC) 2023 will hold its first players draft at the storied NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, located in Texas, check out all the details below.
The first player drafting will take place on March 9 with the season scheduled to begin this July.
Major League Cricket (MLC) 2023 player draft date, players list, format, venue
One small step for MLC, another giant leap for cricket 🏏 🚀 🌘
MLC takes flight at the iconic Space Center Houston on March 19, where six teams will select their rosters for this historic competition!
Head over to our command center for more info 👨🚀 ➡️ https://t.co/r0ywUT5VKs pic.twitter.com/DuzYMvd44F
— Major League Cricket (@MLCricket) February 8, 2023
🛰️ ICYMI 🛰️ Important #MLC2023 info was released yesterday! Here's what you need to know:
🏏 MLC Domestic Player Combine – MAR 4-16
🏏 MLC Draft – NASA's Space Center Houston – MAR 19 @ 7PM CST
🏏 Watch everything LIVE – MLC Network's @YouTube channel➡️ https://t.co/QE6mdG7Zrr pic.twitter.com/JEnXIr2Ssr
— Major League Cricket (@MLCricket) February 8, 2023
Shah Rukh Khan’s Knight Riders Group, who are one of the original franchises in the IPL are also one of the MLC’s first investors. The group will take charge of the Los Angeles franchise.
The Major League Cricket (MLC) is a franchise T20 tournament set to feature top American-based players from Minor League Cricket. Ahead of the player draft, the MLC officials will organise a player scouting combine in Houston from March 1–8. Players from the MLC’s feeder league, will compete in several trial matches across the eight-day combine.
Major League Cricket (MLC)player draft
The player draft for the Major League Cricket is scheduled to take place on March 9 at the storied NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Currently, foreign players will not be selected in the draft, similar to the Minor League Cricket drafting process.
Sources claim that franchise will deal directly with players in order to fill the international spots in their squads. As of now, the exact allocation of international and domestic players lots are still being worked out.
Some foreign players have relocated to the USA that will participate as local players in the combine. These players need to need to have fulfilled a three-year residency ICC qualification period in order to become eligible. Moreover, since these players are from abroad but have domestic residency, they can also fill up the international spots on the roster.
Given below is a list of such players:
- Corey Anderson (former New Zealand all-rounder now based in Dallas)
- Sami Aslam (former Pakistan batter now based in San Francisco)
- Dane Piedt (former South Africa spinner now based in North Carolina)
- Liam Plunkett (former England fast bowler now based in Philadelphia)
- Unmukt Chand (former India U-19 World Cup winning captain now based in Philadelphia)
MLC 2023 venue and format
The debut season of the MLC, a six-team franchise league will take place Grand Prairie, Texas a suburb of Dallas. The venue is a recently remodelled facility, which was formerly called the Airhogs Stadium. The stadium will finish its remodel by the end of spring, and it will be a 7200 capacity permanent seat stadium.
The MLC will follow a single round-robin format played out over 18 days starting from July 13 to July 30. Following which, there will be a four-match playoff round.
MLC franchise investors
The MLC will feature six MLC franchises in the debut season. All of these franchises already have connections to the IPL and also have the support of well-known South Asian Americans. The Knight Riders Group, who are one of the MLC’s original investors, will reportedly manage the Los Angeles based franchise. Meanwhile, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is one of the key investors for the Seattle-based franchise.
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