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Major League Cricket USA.

Raith_C_Chattonell
Raith_C_Chattonell Posts: 5,672
edited July 2023 in Other Football and Sports
'Kicks' off tomorrow in Dallas, Texas.

Looks like they mean business this time.  Purpose built stadium, good level of investment (including from the IPL), well paid players, and some sell out crowds.

https://www.majorleaguecricket.com/home
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Comments

  • MarcusH26
    MarcusH26 Posts: 8,028
    Looks like some very strong lineups in terms of big name overseas talent too. Jason Roy I think is the sole England player that's gone over there (Liam Plunkett moved over there and doesn't count as an overseas it seems) 

    Will be interesting to see how this goes but it does feel like we're reaching saturation for these franchise T20 leagues.
  • se9addick
    se9addick Posts: 32,030
    Interesting time of year to launch given that it’s baseball season 
  • Pedro45
    Pedro45 Posts: 5,820
    Three week season; lots of "older" players (Guptill, Zampa, Du Plessis, Russell, Wade, etc). Teams owned by IPL owners (again). It will chug along for a few seasons, but I don't see how a San Francisco "team" can play games in Texas and North Carolina, and have any correlation to that city? (Same with most of the other teams...) Only Brits are Plunkett and Roy (although I think Stevo was linked at one point?), so no real interest, as with most franchise sport.
  • kentaddick
    kentaddick Posts: 18,729
    edited July 2023
    Pedro45 said:
    Three week season; lots of "older" players (Guptill, Zampa, Du Plessis, Russell, Wade, etc). Teams owned by IPL owners (again). It will chug along for a few seasons, but I don't see how a San Francisco "team" can play games in Texas and North Carolina, and have any correlation to that city? (Same with most of the other teams...) Only Brits are Plunkett and Roy (although I think Stevo was linked at one point?), so no real interest, as with most franchise sport.
    reminds me of the ICL - just older players for the most part. IIRC plunkett qualifies for USA, so might be a good move for him - he seems to have got the foakes treatment before foakes. 

    Exciting that the game's going stateside, will probably get some interest from americans with south asian and maybe carribean background.  Whether it gets a bigger audience remains to be seen.
  • Friend Or Defoe
    Friend Or Defoe Posts: 18,070
    Very interesting. One of my very good friends is an American cricket fan and he's moving back to LA this week. He's not a fan of the pyjama stuff though. I'll be very surprised if it takes off there with baseball being such a popular sport.
  • kentaddick
    kentaddick Posts: 18,729
    cricket, specifically t20 is a far more entertaining spectator sport than baseball, which is a real snooze fest - definitely the most boring sport i've ever seen live.
  • ElfsborgAddick
    ElfsborgAddick Posts: 29,024
    Friend Or Defoe said:
    Very interesting. One of my very good friends is an American cricket fan and he's moving back to LA this week. He's not a fan of the pyjama stuff though. I'll be very surprised if it takes off there with baseball being such a popular sport.
    Possibly the yanks will see a similarity between baseball and cricket and the game may be reasonably popular?
  • cantersaddick
    cantersaddick Posts: 16,907
    kentaddick said:
    cricket, specifically t20 is a far more entertaining spectator sport than baseball, which is a real snooze fest - definitely the most boring sport i've ever seen live.
    I completely agree. But I don't believe the Americans see sports or entertainment in the same way that we do. For us its about the quality on the pitch and the result. For them its as much about what happens around it, the food, the drink, the music, the entertainment, celeb appearances. They're quite happy if a tiny proportion of their time in the stadium is spent actually on the sport. We would never accept that even if it was in exchange for decent food & drink.
  • killerandflash
    killerandflash Posts: 69,839
    kentaddick said:
    cricket, specifically t20 is a far more entertaining spectator sport than baseball, which is a real snooze fest - definitely the most boring sport i've ever seen live.
    I obviously much prefer cricket, but have been to 3 baseball games when out in the US and enjoyed them all.
  • Lincsaddick
    Lincsaddick Posts: 32,345
    big Asian and West Indian background populations in the USA, allied to the novelty factor, this should do well .. no doubt in my opinion that 20/20 or similar formats, make for a generally entertaining spectacle .. expect lotsa razza mattaz
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  • Pedro45
    Pedro45 Posts: 5,820
    Lincsaddick said:
    big Asian and West Indian background populations in the USA, allied to the novelty factor, this should do well .. no doubt in my opinion that 20/20 or similar formats, make for a generally entertaining spectacle .. expect lotsa razza mattaz
    But with the games at two venues in the middle of nowhere, and very limited stadium capacity (7k max!), I doubt there will be many watching live.  It's TV where the audience will mainly come from, but unless you idolise a player who's in one of these games, why watch on TV when you could take in other "better" live cricket from around the world?
  • thai malaysia addick
    thai malaysia addick Posts: 18,332
    killerandflash said:
    kentaddick said:
    cricket, specifically t20 is a far more entertaining spectator sport than baseball, which is a real snooze fest - definitely the most boring sport i've ever seen live.
    I obviously much prefer cricket, but have been to 3 baseball games when out in the US and enjoyed them all.
    I've been to about 12 baseball games and have enjoyed most of them. I've seen plenty of T20 games that have been boring. One-sided T20 games are not usually very exciting; at least with baseball, a score can change dramatically.
  • PopIcon
    PopIcon Posts: 5,970
    kentaddick said:
    cricket, specifically t20 is a far more entertaining spectator sport than baseball, which is a real snooze fest - definitely the most boring sport i've ever seen live.
    I'll expand on this. Not just t20, but odi and test too.

    I found baseball tiresome to watch.
  • bobmunro
    bobmunro Posts: 20,841
    PopIcon said:
    kentaddick said:
    cricket, specifically t20 is a far more entertaining spectator sport than baseball, which is a real snooze fest - definitely the most boring sport i've ever seen live.
    I'll expand on this. Not just t20, but odi and test too.

    I found baseball tiresome to watch.
    I think test cricket would be several steps too far - not sure they could get their heads around playing for five days and not having a winner!

    But I agree - all forms of cricket are better than rounders.
  • Leuth
    Leuth Posts: 23,312
    One of the more interesting recent cricket developments is extremely influential (and good) US baseball (and other sports) Youtuber Jomboy developing and sustaining an interest in cricket, which has become almost his second interest behind baseball (he's also into lacrosse for some reason). Cricket should seek entente with baseball, not competition. 
  • Friend Or Defoe
    Friend Or Defoe Posts: 18,070
    kentaddick said:
    cricket, specifically t20 is a far more entertaining spectator sport than baseball, which is a real snooze fest - definitely the most boring sport i've ever seen live.
    Me too, I've seen a game in USA and Japan but baseball is in grained into their culture. Bizarrely it's the most popular sport in Japan.
  • Callumcafc
    Callumcafc Posts: 63,755
    Looking forward to it. Wish they were playing some games in Austin.
  • MarcusH26
    MarcusH26 Posts: 8,028
    Leuth said:
    One of the more interesting recent cricket developments is extremely influential (and good) US baseball (and other sports) Youtuber Jomboy developing and sustaining an interest in cricket, which has become almost his second interest behind baseball (he's also into lacrosse for some reason). Cricket should seek entente with baseball, not competition. 

    Was interesting when they sent Harry Brook out to Spring Training with the St Louis Cardinals as a promo for the London game.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=VeE5zqNDn_U&feature=share7
  • Raith_C_Chattonell
    Raith_C_Chattonell Posts: 5,672
    If they ever have a World Series of cricket, they may have to look beyond Canada.
  • Chizz
    Chizz Posts: 28,330
    What size crowds are they expecting? I see that the early games are advertised as being sold out, but does that mean tens, or tens of thousands? 
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  • Pedro45
    Pedro45 Posts: 5,820
    edited July 2023
    Chizz said:
    What size crowds are they expecting? I see that the early games are advertised as being sold out, but does that mean tens, or tens of thousands? 
    The Texas ground has a 7k capacity and the North Carolina one only 3.5k...so no, not big crowds despite selling out!
  • Chizz
    Chizz Posts: 28,330
    Pedro45 said:
    Chizz said:
    What size crowds are they expecting? I see that the early games are advertised as being sold out, but does that mean tens, or tens of thousands? 
    The Texas ground has a 7k capacity and the North Carolina one only 3.5k...so no, not big crowds despite selling out!
    That's still some good numbers from what's essentially an unknown sport 
  • cantersaddick
    cantersaddick Posts: 16,907
    And so it begins. Sunil Narine drops out of finals day to play in the MLS. Jason Roy is at least sticking around for finals day before he leaves. 

    Massive massive loss with both bat and ball. 
  • Addick Addict
    Addick Addict Posts: 39,757
    The salaries for players in Year 1 have already surpassed the best that are on offer in The Hundred- Roy is on a two year contract worth £300K.

    The six teams include the following 42 players (players in bold are taking part in both the MLC and The Hundred):

    Kieron Pollard
    Trent Boult
    Rashid Khan
    Kagiso Rabada
    Dewald Brevis
    David Wiese
    Jason Behrendorff
    Tim David
    Nicholas Pooran
    Andre Russell
    Sunil Narine
    Jason Roy
    Lockie Ferguson
    Adam Zampa
    Martin Guptill
    Rillee Rossouw
    Spencer Johnson
    Anrich Nortje
    Wanindu Hasaranga
    Adam Milne
    Marco Jansen
    Ben Dwarshuis
    Glenn Phillips
    Moises Henriques
    Josh Philippe
    Quinton de Koch
    Sikander Raza
    Wayne Parnell
    Devon Conway
    Mitchell Santner
    Daniel Sams
    David Miller
    Dwayne Bravo
    Ambati Rayudu
    Aaron Finch
    Chaitanya Bishnoi
    Lungi Ngidi
    Marcus Stoinis
    Corey Anderson
    Liam Plunkett
    Shadab Khan
    Haris Rauf

    The Hundred confirmed overseas recruits for the eight sides are:

    Nathan Ellis
    Haris Rauf
    Glenn Phillips
    Shaheen Afridi
    Wanindu Hasaranga
    Haris Rauf
    Ashton Turner
    Josh Little
    Michael Bracewell
    David Wiese
    Sunil Narine
    Wayne Parnell
    Henrich Klaassen
    Ihsanullah Khan
    Rashid Khan
    Daniel Sams
    Colin Munro
    Shadab Khan
    Adam Milne
    Tim David
    Devon Conway
    Finn Allen

  • Raith_C_Chattonell
    Raith_C_Chattonell Posts: 5,672
    I didn't realise the US is co-hosting next year's T20 World Cup  ...

    (From the Guardian)

    Close to $50m already spent, with another $130m on the way. It has wealthy patrons: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella leads a roll call of leading Indian-American tech executives who’ve signed up to throw cash at the new venture. It has the blessing of an International Cricket Council desperate to lift its sport’s profile in America ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the United States and the West Indies. It has powerful allies: four Indian Premier League franchises and two state cricket bodies from Australia have signed on as either full owners or operational partners for the fledgling league’s six founding teams. It has a slot in the international cricket calendar that’s relatively uncrowded, with only the men’s and women’s Ashes as real competition for the committed global cricket fan’s attention.
  • PopIcon
    PopIcon Posts: 5,970
    bobmunro said:
    PopIcon said:
    kentaddick said:
    cricket, specifically t20 is a far more entertaining spectator sport than baseball, which is a real snooze fest - definitely the most boring sport i've ever seen live.
    I'll expand on this. Not just t20, but odi and test too.

    I found baseball tiresome to watch.
    I think test cricket would be several steps too far - not sure they could get their heads around playing for five days and not having a winner!

    But I agree - all forms of cricket are better than rounders.
    I think you have a good point.
  • Callumcafc
    Callumcafc Posts: 63,755
    edited July 2023
    Texas Super Kings post 181-6 from their 20 overs

    39 y/o Dwayne Bravo hitting sixes around the ground in the last over, very entertaining.
  • Making_all_the_noise
    Making_all_the_noise Posts: 212
    Like others, I can’t see cricket taking off in the US except within one obvious target market. I assume this is being pitched at the large diaspora from the sub continent. They tend to be very poorly represented in US sports, in the same way they’re barely represented in football, so many retain strong cricketing allegiances to their motherlands. Starved of the sport in the US, I can see this demographic alone selling a lot of tickets. Once the novelty of watching some over the hill cricketers bash the ball around for twenty overs runs out, I just don’t see the US market being big enough to sustain a whole league in a country with such a huge land expanse. Sure there’s some money to be made in the short term however. 

    I tend to find the cricket v baseball arguments as puerile as the rugby v NFL arguments. The similarities between the sports are striking on a base level but paper thin in reality. So you end up with people totally uneducated in one or other of the sports, claiming that “their” sport is obviously far superior. It usually descends into an argument with all the intellectual rigour of a frat boys dick measuring contest. 
  • AddicksAddict
    AddicksAddict Posts: 15,780
    Making_all_the_noise said:
    Like others, I can’t see cricket taking off in the US except within one obvious target market. I assume this is being pitched at the large diaspora from the sub continent. They tend to be very poorly represented in US sports, in the same way they’re barely represented in football, so many retain strong cricketing allegiances to their motherlands. Starved of the sport in the US, I can see this demographic alone selling a lot of tickets. Once the novelty of watching some over the hill cricketers bash the ball around for twenty overs runs out, I just don’t see the US market being big enough to sustain a whole league in a country with such a huge land expanse. Sure there’s some money to be made in the short term however. 

    I tend to find the cricket v baseball arguments as puerile as the rugby v NFL arguments. The similarities between the sports are striking on a base level but paper thin in reality. So you end up with people totally uneducated in one or other of the sports, claiming that “their” sport is obviously far superior. It usually descends into an argument with all the intellectual rigour of a frat boys dick measuring contest. 
    And you know all about that?
  • AddicksAddict
    AddicksAddict Posts: 15,780
    As a bit of history, cricket lost its popularity as the summer game in the US because of the Civil War. Troops out in the field found it hard to find 22 yards of flat ground for a wicket but baseball could be played almost anywhere.

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