Dates | 5 – 28 July 2024 |
---|---|
Administrator(s) | American Cricket Enterprises USA Cricket |
Cricket format | Twenty20 |
Tournament format(s) | Round-robin and playoffs |
Host(s) | United States |
Participants | 6 |
Official website | Major League Cricket |
The 2024 Major League Cricket season (also known as MLC 2024, or for sponsorship reasons as 2024 Cognizant Major League Cricket) will be the second season of Major League Cricket,[1][2] a franchise Twenty20 cricket league established in 2019 by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) in the United States.[3] The season is set to be hosted, as was the case the previous season, at two venues: Grand Prairie Stadium in Grand Prairie, Texas and Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina.[4] It will be played from July 5 to 28, 2024, with MI New York as the defending champions.[5]
In December 2023, it was announced that the second season of the tournament would begin on July 4, 2024, four days after the conclusion of the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.[6] This was later moved back a day to July 5.[7] It was also reported that matches would be played at Grand Prairie Stadium, alongside other venues.[8] By March 2024, MLC had announced that they had signed Cognizant to serve as the season's title sponsor. [9]
On February 15, 2024, the overseas players' retention lists were announced, with the number of overseas slots having been upped to nine.[10] In the following months, teams would go on to select further overseas players, including Australian cricketers Steven Smith and Travis Head.[11][12] The domestic players' draft was virtually held on March 21, 2024, with a total of 20 players being picked by the teams over 10 rounds.[13] An additional draft is scheduled for June 16 in order for teams to complete their squads.[14] The season schedule was released on May 7, with defending champions MI New York to face the Seattle Orcas in the season opener, and the final set for July 28.[7]
All the six teams from the previous season will take part this season.
Franchise | Captain | Head coach |
---|---|---|
Los Angeles Knight Riders | Sunil Narine | Phil Simmons |
MI New York | Kieron Pollard | Robin Peterson |
San Francisco Unicorns | TBA | Shane Watson |
Seattle Orcas | Wayne Parnell | Pravin Amre |
Texas Super Kings | Faf du Plessis | Stephen Fleming |
Washington Freedom | TBA | Ricky Ponting |
A minimum of 16 players and a maximum of 19 players can be selected by the teams with a maximum of nine overseas players. The teams can also retain their domestic players during the retention window, which was open till February 29, 2024.[15] The teams were allowed to select the remaining domestic players during the draft which was held on March 21, 2024 and another additional draft scheduled to be held on June 16, 2024.
Los Angeles Knight Riders | MI New York | San Francisco Unicorns | Seattle Orcas | Texas Super Kings | Washington Freedom |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Matches will be held at two venues: Grand Prairie Stadium, situated in Grand Prairie, Texas, boasting a capacity of 7,000 seats (expandable to 15,000), and Church Street Park, nestled in Morrisville, North Carolina, accommodating up to 3,500 spectators.
Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | Pts | NRR | Qualification |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Los Angeles Knight Riders | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | Advanced to Qualifier |
2 | MI New York | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | |
3 | San Francisco Unicorns | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | Advanced to Eliminator |
4 | Seattle Orcas | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | |
5 | Texas Super Kings | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | |
6 | Washington Freedom | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
Timing of matches in Grand Prairie, Texas are in Central Time Zone (CDT) (UTC-05:00). |
Timing of matches in Morrisville, North Carolina are in Eastern Time Zone (EDT) (UTC-04:00). |
On 7 May 2024, Major League Cricket (MLC) confirmed the fixtures for the competition.[18][19][20]
Qualifier | Challenger | Final | |||||||||||
July 25, 2024 – Grand Prairie Stadium | July 28, 2024 – Grand Prairie Stadium | ||||||||||||
1 | 1st placed team | QW | Winner of Qualifier | ||||||||||
2 | 2nd placed team | July 26, 2024 – Grand Prairie Stadium | CW | Winner of Challenger | |||||||||
QL | Loser of Qualifier | ||||||||||||
Eliminator | EW | Winner of Eliminator | |||||||||||
July 24, 2024 – Grand Prairie Stadium | |||||||||||||
3 | 3rd placed team | ||||||||||||
4 | 4th placed team | ||||||||||||