Professional cricket is back in the US for the first time since the mid-1800s. On Thursday, the Texas Super Kings beat the Los Angeles Knight Riders by 69 runs in the opening game of the “powered by Betway” Major League Cricket T20 tournament at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas.
The US’s newest major league shared images from the first T20 cricket game of its inaugural season on Thursday night via Twitter:
CEO of London-based iGaming firm Betway, Anthony Werkman, said the 19-game season featuring six franchises “will aid the growth of the sport in the US and beyond.”
Wealthy Indian entrepreneurs and celebrities — including Microsoft boss Satya Nardella and Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan — have injected AU$174m ($119m) into MLC in the ambitious hope of establishing a professional cricket league.
a $1.5m salary cap to go shopping for 18 players
To bolster this, MLC allowed the six franchises a $1.5m salary cap to go shopping for 18 players. These 18 include the best T20 players in the world, including Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan, South Africa fast bowler Kagiso Rabada, West Indian Dwayne Bravo, Australian Marcus Stoinis, England’s Jason Roy, and New Zealand’s Trent Boult.
Former England fast bowler Liam Plunkett, who will be turning out for the San Francisco Unicorns, believes MLC could be “just behind the Indian Premier League” in becoming one of the world’s biggest T20 tournaments.