Owners of CSK, MI, KKR and DC to buy teams in USA's Major League Cricket: Reports

Four out of the six participating teams in the new US-based T20 league, Major League Cricket (MLC) will reportedly be owned by Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise owners. While the inaugural season of the cricket league is scheduled to begin this July, a report by ESPNCricinfo claims three of the current IPL franchises have bought stakes in the MLC.  As per the report, Mumbai Indians (MI), Chennai Super Kings (CSK), and Delhi Capitals (DC) will anchor franchises in New York, Texas, and Seattle respectively.

Meanwhile, one of the early investors in the MLC, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are said to be taking charge of the Los Angeles franchise. While Mumbai and Knight Riders run the New York and LA franchises on their own, the Seattle franchise will be run by the Capitals in partnership with Microsoft chief executive officer Satya Nadella. MLC confirmed the partnership in a release on Thursday, revealing the name of the team to be The Seattle Orcas. 

All participating teams in the inaugural Major League Cricket season

Alongside New York, Texas, Los Angeles, and Seattle, the other two teams in the MLC will be San Francisco and Washington DC. “The Seattle Orcas will join teams representing Texas, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., playing the exciting Twenty20 (T20) format of the game starting July 13, with the 2023 MLC championship final set for July 30,” MLC further added.

This comes after the IPL franchises have spread their operations to major T20 leagues around the world in recent years. MI and DC have teams in  South Africa's SA20 and the UAE-based International League T20 (ILT20), alongside the IPL and WPL, while KKR have teams in the Caribbean Premier League and ILT20. At the same time, CSK also own a team in the SA20.

Major League Cricket Player Draft: When, Where and How

In another release explaining the player draft for the inaugural MLC season, the league confirmed that the six franchises will start to fill their rosters from Sunday onwards. The Major League Cricket Domestic Player Draft is slated to take place at the Space Center Houston, the official Visitor Center of NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The squad size of the teams will be a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 18 players. 

Out of the 18, nine players can be foreign internationals, while at least six players from the USA need to be a part of the playing XI. The overseas players will not be a part of the player draft and will be direct signings by the teams. The team purse will reportedly by USD 800,000 for overseas signings and USD 300,000 for the US-based players.