MLC 2024 FAQs – Venues, Schedules, Teams, Famous Players and More

Did you think the cricket fever in the US would die down after the T20 World Cup? Think again, because the second season of Major League Cricket (MLC) is just around the corner. The first edition was marked by high scoring and exciting individual performances as some of the biggest names in T20 cricket showcased their talent in Texas and North Carolina. So what can we expect this year? Here are all the answers.

First things first: When does it start?

The first game will be on Friday, July 5th. MI New York will face Seattle Orcas in Morrisville. The tournament will last until July 28th. A total of 25 games will be played.

So which teams are taking part? And who won the first time?

The six teams are Los Angeles Knight Riders, MI New York, San Francisco Unicorns, Seattle Orcas, Texas Super Kings and Washington Freedom.

It was MI New York, inspired by a storming century from Nicholas Pooran, that defeated the Seattle Orcas in the final to win the inaugural title.

Are you sure it’s the MLC and not the IPL? There seem to be a lot of big names in there…

This is because IPL franchises have invested in most of the teams in the tournament, as they have done in other franchise leagues like SA20, ILT20 and the CPL. IPL franchises own four teams in the MLC. Apart from the three obvious ones, the Seattle Orcas are owned by the GMR Group, which co-owns the Delhi Capitals.

Washington Freedom, owned by Indian-American entrepreneur Sanjay Govil, has Cricket New South Wales as its high performance partner. San Francisco Unicorns, owned by Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan, have a partnership with Cricket Victoria.

At the T20 World Cup we saw games in New York and Lauderhill as well as Dallas. Will the MLC also be played at these grounds?

No. This year’s MLC, like 2023, will only be played at Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, Texas and Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina.

Last season, the first eight league games were played in Dallas and the next seven in Morrisville before the tournament moved back to Dallas for the knockout rounds. This year, however, games will be played in both stadiums throughout the season.

So you said Pooran played last season. What other big names were there last season and will play this year?

A total of 23 overseas players who were part of the inaugural season will also be in action at the 2024 MLC. Big names among them include Rashid Khan, Trent Boult, Heinrich Klaasen and Kieron Pollard. The full list of overseas players still in the squad can be found here.

And are there any exciting new additions this year?

Yes, indeed. Pat Cummins, Travis Head and Steven Smith are some of the high-profile Australian signings, while Daryl Mitchell, Shakib Al Hasan and Romario Shepherd are some of the other new arrivals. Full squads can be found here.

The USA have surprisingly reached the Super Eight tournament of the T20 World Cup, so who will their home team face?

The USA have put in an impressive performance at the T20 World Cup, with the Super Over victory over Pakistan being the highlight. Their captain Monank Patel, Noshthush Kenjige and Shayan Jahangir will represent defending champions MI New York, while last year’s runners-up Seattle Orcas have US vice-captain Aaron Jones and Harmeet Singh in their ranks.

Milind Kumar, who performed brilliantly as a reserve fielder against Pakistan, will play for the Texas Super Kings, while Andries Gous and Saurabh Netravalkar will play for Washington Freedom.

That all sounds good. So what is the format of the league?

Like most franchise leagues, the MLC will initially have a round-robin league stage. Last year, each team played each other once, but this time each team will play seven games each in the league stage. This has helped the tournament grow from 19 games last year to 25 this season.

The two best teams meet in the qualifying match and the winner of this match advances to the final.

The third and fourth placed teams will face each other in the Eliminator. The winner of the Eliminator will face the team that loses the Qualifier in the Challenger, where the second finalist will be determined.

You can see the complete schedule here.

But the MLC games don’t count as official T20, do they?

That was the case last year, but the tournament was awarded List A status by the ICC. It is the second competition hosted by associated franchise tournaments to be awarded List A status by the ICC, following the UAE’s ILT20 earlier this year.

This means that the MLC is now recognised as an official T20 league and tournament match records are now considered official format statistics.

And given the busy cricket schedule, won’t there be clashes with other T20 leagues around the world?

The Lanka Premier League runs until July 21, so Matheesha Pathirana will not be available until Colombo Strikers are eliminated.

There will also be a six-day clash with the Hundred, meaning 12 players who are part of the MLC could be delayed in arriving in the UK.