It’s that lull after the storm of a World Cup and the actual storm after its conclusion. Indian fans hungrily watched every second of footage of the team’s triumphant return to Indian soil. If Rohit sneezed or Virat passed some gas (jk, his body doesn’t produce anything noxious) the whole nation was on it. As millions left their footwear on Mumbai’s marine drive in a kind of “sole-baring” tribute to the team, we reluctantly let go of the afterglow that we did nothing to earn.
Meanwhile, over in Zimbabwe, a new look Indian squad won the series 4-1, spoiling India’s no loss record (in T20Is) for 2024. Zimbabwe was once a proud cricketing nation that often pushed better funded teams to their limit, sometimes beating them (we still shudder at memories of a dour and obdurate Andy Flower). Now it’s a place where India’s fringe players are sent to be tested in that nebulous zone between first class and international cricket usually reserved for “A” team tours.
In England, a man who is simultaneously ageless and a cranky old bloke was nudged into the retirement pasture. The 41-year old Jimmy Anderson looks like he could go on for another 10 years taking crucial wickets but such is the ageism in cricket that turning 40 is almost always a retirement sentence.
All this news pales in comparison with the new kid on the cricket league block – the very Americanly named Major League Cricket, or MLC. MLC is the kind of kid whose parents want them to be seen and not heard. Remember when you were allowed to attend the adult party at home for an hour or so if you didn’t bother anyone and went straight to bed without a fuss when told to? That’s the MLC amidst a packed international cricketing calendar. Come out for a couple of weeks and then it’s off to bed with you.
The average Indian fan would only have a vague idea of its existence while the average American sports fan didn’t even know there was a cricket world cup on. A homegrown survey among (non-Indian) American friends revealed that not even one person had heard about the MLC. In its second year, the MLC has been given List A status by the International Cricket Council so the statistics recorded here will reflect in the larger cricket database for individual and team numbers.
The MLC feels like a shadow IPL, given that almost all the team owners (and names) also run or fund teams in the Indian Premier League. This business model isn’t new. IPL team owners have bought the rights to squads in T20 cricket leagues all over the world from South Africa to the Caribbean with some groups like the Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians having their brands in four or five leagues. Players and support staff are also hired for multiple teams even though the auctions are unrelated. Like someone elegantly said on Reddit: “It’s a control C + control V sitch.”
Indian players contracted to the BCCI are only allowed to play the IPL, and no other leagues around the world. Keeping some of the biggest names exclusive to the IPL makes branding sense, but it has led to a reverse brain drain.
After 16 years of the IPL, most foreign players have made India a second home and learned all the tricks of playing there, while Indian players still struggle to acclimatize to foreign conditions. This has also robbed the average domestic Indian player and fringe Indian team players of another revenue stream outside of the IPL. However, it is also true that no other league pays anything close to the IPL causing the likes of Sehwag to quip that they can’t afford him.
Ok, OK, I’ll stop droning on about the boring economics and marketing of world cricket and the monopoly enjoyed by the BCCI. Instead let me share a cheat sheet for the MLC so you can show off your obscure cricket nous to friends and uncles.
When the MLC airs
July 5th – July 28th, with a total of 25 matches (remember the IPL has 74!)
Where is it being played
Grand Prairie Stadium (Dallas, Texas) and Church Street Park (Morrisville, North Carolina). So, they’re easier to get to from my place in Brooklyn than the stadium in New York.
Where to watch
USA: Willow by Cricbuzz, YES Network, Monumental Sports Network, Bally LA, Bally Dallas, Root Sports Northwest
Canada: Willow by Cricbuzz
India: Sony Sports Network (Television) and JioCinema (Digital Streaming)
Teams
MI New York (yes, MI = Mumbai Indians), San Francisco Unicorns, Los Angeles Knight Riders, Washington Freedom, Texas Super Kings (weather is the same in Chennai and TX), and my favorite team name of all time, the Seattle Orcas!
Big Names
If you leave out the Indians, many of the biggest stars in T20 cricket play in the MLC. The likes of Sunil Narine, Andre Russel, Travis Head, Faf DuPlessis, Nicholas Pooran, Quinton De Kock, Rashid Khan, and Heinrich Klaasen.
Who’s doing well and poorly
Washington Freedom lead the table without a single loss, with defending champions MI New York in second place. The other teams are all milling about with a single win each.
Faf Du Plessis, another ageless wonder, leads the run charts striking at almost 165 with his Texas (and Chennai) Super Kings Team mate Devon Conway in second. Steve Smith is in third place (albeit with almost 100 runs less than Faf), showing the Aussies what they missed by leaving him out of the world cup squad. Sunil Narine who sparkled with bat and ball during the IPL is averaging a princely 3.25. Yikes!
With the ball, pacer Saurabh Netrawalkar who was USA’s star at the World Cup, leads with 12 wickets taken at an incredible 9 runs a wicket.
Bombastic Prediction
Having watched 1.5 games of the MLC this armchair critique can say with arrogant certainly that the bottom placed Seatlle Orcas will sink all the other boats and win it all!