The inaugural season of Major League Cricket is just around the corner. This time, six teams will go toe to toe against each other for the first-ever MLC win. While the U.S. fans are gearing up for this exciting tournament, the teams are not behind in preparing to put up a great show. The teams have drafted players from around the world and local talent. This will boost their morale and help them plan things further before they will host the 2024 T20 world cup alongside the West Indies.
READ: Major League Cricket Schedule 2023
In this article, we will talk about the teams participating this year. So are you ready? I bet you are! Let’s begin
Major League Cricket Teams
We have already told you there will be six teams this year, and the plans are to expand the tournament to 8 units. American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) will own all the teams, while investors will be assigned one group. ACE will hold the sole ownership of the teams for now. The president of ACE identified the areas where cricket was most popular, and teams have been made according to that standard.
ALSO CHECK: Major League Cricket Live Streaming 2023
The following are the teams for this year’s MLC:
- Los Angeles Knight Riders
- MI New York
- San Francisco Unicorns
- Seattle Orcas
- Texas Super Kings
- Washington Freedom
Now, let’s dig a bit deeper into each team.
Los Angeles Knight Riders
Founded back in 2020, LA Knight Riders is an MLC team that represents the city of Los Angeles. Here’s a summary before we discuss them in detail.
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| Team | LA Knight Riders |
| City | Los Angeles |
| Color | Purple and Gold |
| Founded | 2020 |
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Currently, the team plans to have the stadium at the Grand Park as their headquarters. That is one of the only stadiums that is available for professional cricket. And most probably, it will be used in the ICC events as well.
The ownership of the LA Knight Riders was granted to the Knight Riders Group due to their purchase of a share in Major League Cricket, which that organization disclosed in December 2020.
Before the start of the inaugural season, it was revealed that the first domestic draft for the MLC would occur on March 19, 2023.
Here is the team as of right now.
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| Name | Nationality |
| Unmukt Chand | India |
| Jaskaran Malhotra | United States |
| Nitish Kumar | Canada |
| Saif Badar | Pakistan |
| Ali Sheikh | United States |
| Shadley van Schalkwyk | South Africa |
| Bhaskar Yadram | Guyana |
| Ali Khan | United States |
| Corne Dry | South Africa |
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MI New York
Let’s come to another team owned by one of the IPL franchises. MI New York, as the name implies, represents New York. You can also say that it also means Mumbai Indians.
IPL is making cricket global, one way or the other.
Here are a few details about MI New York
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| Team | MI New York |
| City | New York |
| Owners | India Win Sports |
| Founded | 2023 |
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Not much is known about the franchise, as it was founded recently. We will keep you updated regarding the content. Let’s see the players they drafted for this season.
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| Name | Nationality |
| Steven Taylor | USA |
| Hammad Azam | Pakistan |
| Ehsan Adil | Pakistan |
| Nosthush Kenjige | USA |
| Monank Patel | USA |
| Sarabjit Ladda | Indian |
| Shayan Jahangir | USA |
| Kyle Phillip | USA |
| Saideep Ganesh | USA |
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San Francisco Unicorns
The next team on the list is San Francisco Unicorns. Here is a quick preview of them
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| Team | San Francisco Unicorns |
| City | San Francisco |
| Home | Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Stadium |
| Founded | 2023 |
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This is a new team as well. They are planning to have Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Stadium as their home ground. The stadium is still under planning, so all the matches, for now, will be played in Dallas.
Here is the squad for the Unicorns.
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| Name | Nationality |
| Aaron Finch (c) | Australia |
| Marcus Stoinis | Australia |
| Corey Anderson | New Zealand |
| Liam Plunkett | England |
| Tajinder Singh | India |
| Chaitanya Bishnoi | India |
| Carmi le Roux | South Africa |
| Brody Couch | Australia |
| David White | South Africa |
| Smit Patel (wk) | India |
| Sanjay Krishnamurthi | USA |
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Seattle Orcas
It is time for the Orcas! The team was the fruit of a long struggle to support cricket in Seattle. Here is a brief introduction before we dive deeper into their lore
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| Team | San Francisco Unicorns |
| City | San Francisco |
| Colors | Black, white, and light green |
| Founded | 2023 |
| Home Ground | Marymoor Cricket Community Park |
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The Bellevue City Council approved a resolution in November 2021 to support more investigation regarding the price and viability of a cricket facility in Seattle.
The Redmond City Council then accepted a similar resolution in January 2022. In February 2022, King County approved a vote to create a cricket field in Marymoor Park. Somasegar and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella were among some of the critical backers in Major League Cricket’s U.S. expansion, according to a May 2022 announcement from Major League Cricket.
Further details of the team were announced during the draft.
Additionally, it was revealed that the group would collaborate with the GMR Group, joint owners of the Indian Premier League’s Delhi Capitals.
Here is the squad
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| Name | Nationality |
| Mitchell Marsh | Australia |
| Quinton de Kock (wk) | South Africa |
| Harmeet Singh | USA |
| Shehan Jayasuriya | Sri Lanka |
| Shubham Ranjane | USA |
| Cameron Gannon | USA |
| Aaron Jones | USA |
| Nauman Anwar | Pakistan |
| Phani Simhadri | India |
| Angelo Perera | Sri Lanka |
| Matthew Tromp | South Africa |
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Texas Super Kings
It is time to talk about the Texas Super Kings. They will have a massive home advantage as most matches are on their home ground. As their name implies, this is also a team owned by an IPL franchise.
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| Team | Texas Super Kings |
| City | Grand Prairie, Texas, U.S. |
| Color | Yellow |
| Founded | 2023 |
| Coach | Stephan Fleming |
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The franchise, which has its home base in Dallas, Texas, was made public as one of the six founding teams for Major League Cricket in 2023.
The Chennai Super Kings, Ross Perot Jr., and Anurag Jain all share ownership of this company.
The Super Kings later selected players, including Sami Aslam, Calvin Savage, and Milind Kumar, during the draft. Now that we are on that topic let’s see the players they selected.
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| Name | Country |
| Rusty Theron | USA |
| Calvin Savage | South Africa |
| Lahiru Milantha | Sri Lanka |
| Milind Kumar | India |
| Sami Aslam | Pakistan |
| Cameron Stevenson | USA |
| Cody Chetty | South Africa |
| Zia Shahzad | Pakistan |
| Saiteja Mukkamalla | USA |
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Washington Freedom
Seems like a poetic name. The capital boys are in the town representing their city in the first-ever Major League Cricket. Let’s have a look.
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| Team | Washington Freedom |
| City | Washington, D.C |
| Color | Red, white, and blue |
| Founded | 2023 |
| Coach | Greg Shipperd |
| Captain | Moises Henriques |
| Owner | Sanjay Govil |
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Major League Cricket said in May 2022 that it had raised $120 million from several different sponsors in the US. Sanjay Govil, who was subsequently revealed to be the principal financier and operator of the franchise team headquartered in Washington, DC, was one of these backers.
Here is the squad
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| Name | Country |
| Wanindu Hasaranga | Sri Lanka |
| Anrich Nortje | South Africa |
| Andries Gous (wk) | South Africa |
| Mukhtar Ahmed | Pakistan |
| Obus Pienaar | South Africa |
| Saurabh Netravalkar | USA |
| Saad Ali | Pakistan |
| Dane Piedt | South Africa |
| Sujith Gowda | India |
| Justin Dill | South Africa |
| Akhilesh Bodugum | India |
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Parting thoughts
The tournament seems to be pretty exciting with all of these teams. As you can see, most of the sponsors are from IPL so that things will get even more exciting. It is also noteworthy that despite the backers being the same as in the IPL, the had no hesitation in choosing Pakistan players. This is exciting progress.
Overall, if you are a cricket fan living in the US, this has to be the best thing for you. Now go and fill the Dallas city hotels as there should be no seats empty during the tournament.
We have also updated Major League Cricket wants Pakistani boys in action.