The 2023 Major League Cricket (also known as MLC 2023) was the inaugural season of Major League Cricket, a franchise Twenty20 cricket league established in 2019 by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) in the United States. The season was hosted at two venues, Grand Prairie Stadium in Grand Prairie, Texas and Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina. The season was played from 13 to 30 July 2023, with MI New York defeating the Seattle Orcas by seven wickets to win the inaugural title.
2023 Major League Cricket season is located in the United States
Background
Major League Cricket announced in November 2022 that its inaugural season would be played at Grand Prairie Stadium starting July 13 and concluding July 30. MLC also revealed that the tournament would be played in a single round-robin format with fifteen league matches played among six franchises before a four-match play-off phase.
In March 2023, the teams for the tournament were announced ahead of the league's inaugural draft—called the Texas Super Kings, the Seattle Orcas, the Los Angeles Knight Riders, the Washington Freedom, the MI New York and the San Francisco Unicorns, respectively. The draft for the season was then held on March 19, with Harmeet Singh being picked first overall and Aaron Finch and Ahona Ahmed Arthee among others highlighting the draft. In the buildup to the season opener, teams signed multiple other players including Jason Roy, Adam Zampa and Moises Henriques.
In April, USA Cricket—the governing body of cricket in the United States—officially sanctioned the tournament following a dispute with tournament organizers, American Cricket Enterprises, that threatened to delay the launch of MLC. Tournament fixtures were announced on June 12—nearly two months later. In addition, it also revealed that the tournament would be held at two venues, Grand Prairie Stadium and Church Street Park for the group stage, while all play-off matches and the final would be held at Grand Prairie Stadium. Tickets for the matches were also made available on the same day.
Teams
Teams were announced by MLC in March 2023, with team coaches and captains being announced in the months following.
Franchise
Head coach
Captain
Los Angeles Knight Riders
Phil Simmons
Sunil Narine
MI New York
Robin Peterson
Kieron Pollard
San Francisco Unicorns
Shane Watson
Aaron Finch
Seattle Orcas
Pravin Amre
Wayne Parnell
Texas Super Kings
Stephen Fleming
Faf du Plessis
Washington Freedom
Greg Shipperd
Moises Henriques
Squads
A minimum of 16 players and a maximum of 19 players could be selected by the teams with a maximum of nine overseas players. The teams could select nine local players in the draft and another one as a wildcard. All teams released their squads ahead of the start of the season.
Ambati Rayudu withdrew from Major League Cricket amid a proposal made by the BCCI to enact a year-long "cooling-off" period for recently retired players. Rayudu was replaced by former CSK teammate Imran Tahir. , Wanindu Hasaranga withdrew from Major League Cricket due to both not receiving a NOC (no-objection-certificate) from Sri Lanka Cricket and due to Hasaranga wanting to "manage his workloads". He was replaced in the squad by Tanveer Sangha. , Mitchell Marsh was pulled out of the tournament by Cricket Australia in order to manage his workload ahead of Australia's build-up for the 2023 Cricket World Cup and due to the tournament clashing with the Ashes series. , Sikandar Raza withdrew from Major League Cricket due to it clashing with the 2023 Zim Afro T10.[citation needed]
Venues
Matches were held at two venues: Grand Prairie's Grand Prairie Stadium, with a capacity of 7,000 (expandable to 15,000) and Morrisville, North Carolina's Church Street Park, with a capacity of 3,500.
League stage
Los Angeles Knight Riders won the toss and elected to field.
San Francisco Unicorns won the toss and elected to bat.
Seattle Orcas won the toss and elected to field.
Seattle Orcas won the toss and elected to bat.
Washington Freedom won the toss and elected to bat.
MI New York won the toss and elected to bat.
Texas Super Kings won the toss and elected to bat.
San Francisco Unicorns won the toss and elected to bat.
Washington Freedom won the toss elected to field. , Los Angeles Knight Riders were eliminated as a result of this match.
Seattle Orcas won the toss and elected to field. , Seattle Orcas qualified for the play-offs as a result of this match.
San Francisco Unicorns won the toss and elected to field. , Washington Freedom qualified for the play-offs as a result of this match.
Los Angeles Knight Riders won the toss and elected to field.
MI New York won the toss and elected to field.
San Francisco Unicorns won the toss and elected to bat. , Texas Super Kings qualified for the play-offs as a result of this match.
Seattle Orcas won the toss and elected to field. , MI New York qualified for the play-offs and San Francisco Unicorns were eliminated as a result of this match.
Match 1 July 13, 2023 19:30 (N) Scorecard
Texas Super Kings181/6 (20 overs)
v
Los Angeles Knight Riders112 (14 overs)
David Miller 61 (42) Lockie Ferguson 2/23 (4 overs)
Andre Russell 55 (34) Mohammad Mohsin 4/8 (3 overs)
Texas Super Kings won by 69 runs Grand Prairie Stadium, Texas Umpires: Jermaine Lindo (USA) and Paul Wilson (Aus) Player of the match: David Miller (Texas Super Kings)
Match 2 July 14, 2023 15:30 (D/N) Scorecard
San Francisco Unicorns215/5 (20 overs)
v
MI New York193/5 (20 overs)
Corey Anderson 91 (52) Kagiso Rabada 2/32 (4 overs)
Tim David 53* (28) Liam Plunkett 2/30 (4 overs)
San Francisco Unicorns won by 22 runs Grand Prairie Stadium, Texas Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pak) and Vijaya Mallela (USA) Player of the match: Corey Anderson (San Francisco Unicorns)
Seattle Orcas won by 5 wickets Grand Prairie Stadium, Texas Umpires: Wayne Knights (NZ) and Rushane Samuels (WI) Player of the match: Imad Wasim (Seattle Orcas)
Match 4 July 15, 2023 19:30 (N) Scorecard
Seattle Orcas177/4 (20 overs)
v
San Francisco Unicorns142 (17.5 overs)
Heinrich Klaasen 53 (31) Liam Plunkett 2/36 (4 overs)
Seattle Orcas won by 35 runs Grand Prairie Stadium, Texas Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pak) and Billy Taylor (Eng) Player of the match: Heinrich Klaasen (Seattle Orcas)
Match 5 July 16, 2023 15:30 (D/N) Scorecard
Washington Freedom163/5 (20 overs)
v
Texas Super Kings157/7 (20 overs)
Matthew Short 80 (50) Gerald Coetzee 2/26 (4 overs)
Dwayne Bravo 76* (39) Akeal Hosein 2/25 (4 overs)
Washington Freedom won by 6 runs Grand Prairie Stadium, Texas Umpires: Jermaine Lindo (USA) and Paul Wilson (Aus) Player of the match: Matthew Short (Washington Freedom)
MI New York won by 105 runs Grand Prairie Stadium, Texas Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pak) and Billy Taylor (Eng) Player of the match: Tim David (MI New York)
Match 7 July 17, 2023 19:30 (N) Scorecard
Texas Super Kings154/7 (20 overs)
v
MI New York137/8 (20 overs)
Devon Conway 74 (55) Trent Boult 2/29 (4 overs)
Shayan Jahangir 41 (38) Daniel Sams 2/15 (4 overs)
Texas Super Kings won by 17 runs Grand Prairie Stadium, Texas Umpires: Wayne Knights (NZ) and Jermaine Lindo (USA) Player of the match: Devon Conway (Texas Super Kings)
Match 8 July 18, 2023 19:30 (N) Socrecard
San Francisco Unicorns212/7 (20 overs)
v
Los Angeles Knight Riders191/5 (20 overs)
Matthew Wade 78 (41) Adam Zampa 3/41 (4 overs)
Jason Roy 45 (21) Shadab Khan 2/26 (4 overs)
Play-offs
Washington Freedom won the toss and elected to field.
Texas Super Kings won the toss and elected to bat.
MI New York won the toss and elected to field.
Final
MI New York won the toss and elected to field. , The MI New York won the inaugural Major League Cricket tournament as a result of this match.
Awards
On July 28, 2023, a list of end of season awards was announced.
Broadcasting
In July 2023, Major League Cricket (MLC) announced that its inaugural season will be broadcast live in major cricketing nations.
