Major League Cricket (MLC) is an American franchise-level T20 competition that is set to have its inaugural season in 2022. It is an initiative taken by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) to make cricket a regular sport in the USA.
The MLC has already seen Indian investment as the Knight Riders franchise and the Red Chilly Entertainment which is a production house owned by Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan have already announced that they will be having their stakes in the competition. In addition to this, MLC has also announced the players that will be joining them and playing in the league to help it flourish.
List of players who will play in the Major League Cricket (MLC)
1. Corey Anderson
Former New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson announced his retirement from New Zealand cricket recently and made himself available for playing cricket in the USA, leading up to the inaugural MLC season in 2022.
Anderson was a crucial part of New Zealand’s white-ball teams in the past but had not quite been able to make his international comeback for the Kiwis post-2018. The 29-year-old then took this tough decision of giving up on cricket in New Zealand and made himself available for playing for the USA.
This is a massive boost for the MLC in USA as he is one of the star names and a hard-hitting all-rounder. The crowds in the USA will love to see him take the field and entertain them with his big-hitting.
2. Liam Plunkett
England’s world-cup winner Liam Plunkett also has shown his interests in playing in the USA and thus has been roped in by MLC. Plunkett is a World Cup winner as he was a part of England’s 2019 World-Cup winning squad. He too is a very intelligent white-ball bowler and is more than capable of using the long handle.
Post the 2019 World Cup, Plunkett has somewhat fallen out of favour of the England white-ball team. Thus he will look to rebuild his career in the USA and has been vocal about the fact that he will look forward to playing in USA if he gets an opportunity.
3. Sami Aslam
Pakistan opener Sami Aslam has also fallen out of favour of the Pakistan national team. The opener had played a few Tests for Pakistan but with the emergence of Shan Masood and the likes of Abid Ali in fine form, it is less likely that we see Sami Aslam in Pakistan colours again.
Thus, Sami Aslam would also like to give a new direction to his career by playing in the MLC in the USA and maybe spark some hope of playing for Pakistan again.
