USA: MI New York Win First Major League Cricket (MLC) Cup
In the USA's Major League Cricket (MLC), MI New York won the first season with Nicholas Pooran's spectacular 137-run innings.
Most of us are crazy about cricket and majorly big fans of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Did you know that even in the USA there is a similar cricket tournament which has teams similar to IPL teams? Major League Cricket (MLC) is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in the United States. The first season of MLC began on 13th July 2023 and ended on 30th July 2023 with six teams representing major U.S. cities.
Here are the names of the 6 teams and their logos:
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Los Angeles Knight Riders
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MI New York
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Texas Super Kings
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Seattle Orcas
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San Francisco Unicorns
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Washington Freedom
The logos of Los Angeles Knight Riders, MI New York and Texas Super Kings are the same as the IPL Teams - Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai, isn’t it? This is because the owners of these MLC teams are the same as owners of IPL teams. The LA Knight Riders is owned by Kolkata Knight Riders Group which is owned by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, actress Juhi Chawla and her spouse Jay Mehta. They own Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in UAE’s International League T20 - ILT20 (IPL of UAE). MI New York is owned by Indiawin Sports which owns Mumbai Indians and its owners are Ambanis. They also own MI Cape Town in SA20 (IPL of South Africa) and MI Emirates in ILT20. Texas Super Kings is owned by India Cements through its Chennai Super Kings Ltd company which also owns IPLs’ Chennai Super Kings. They also own Joburg Super Kings in SA20. Seattle Orcas (SOR) is owned by many investors including Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO) and the GMR Group which owns IPL’s Delhi Capitals. The final of the MLC was played between MI New York (MINY) and Seattle Orcas (SOR) on 30th July 2023. SOR scored 183 and chasing a target of 184 runs, MINY reached 184/3 in 16 overs. This was because of some fine batting from Nicholas Pooran who was stand-in captain in place of MINY’s original captain Kieron Pollard. Pooran smacked an unbeaten knock of 137 runs off 55 balls and led MINY to victory and lift the cup in the first season of MLC. Like IPL’s MI, MINY too did wonders in the MCL and clinched the cup.
