Major League Cricket, which has been established as USA’s officially sanctioned franchise-based T20 league, will have a projected amount of 110 million dollars spent on stadiums and facilities ahead of the league’s much-anticipated launch in 2023.
The tournament organisers confirmed the development on March 18, stating that they will build or renovate at least eight grounds in the United States before the first ball is bowled in the competition.
As per ESPNcricinfo, the MLC organisers have entered negotiations to buy land and build new ground facilities “at Marymoor Park in the eastern Seattle suburb of Redmond, Washington; as well as two California venues – one proposed for the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San Jose, and the other in Orange County south of Los Angeles.” This, apart from the five venues that have been earmarked for upgradation already.
Sameer Mehta, the co-founder of MCL, told ESPNcricinfo, that they are looking to fasten the developments towards their league next year after gaining encouragement from ICC’s decision to award USA co-hosting rights to the 2024 T20 World Cup along with the Caribbean Islands.
Currently, only the Lauderhill-based Central Broward Regional Park in Florida hosts major international matches played in the USA. For a T20 World Cup of 20 teams, it is expected the ICC would like multiple venues and training facilities to be available.
“This array of venue developments in areas with significant cricket-passionate communities comes as the International Cricket Council (ICC) has identified the United States as its primary target market to expand the game with the award of co-hosting rights to the 2024 T20 Men’s World Cup,”
“MLC is committed to supporting that vision alongside its long-term partner USA Cricket and we’re excited to work together to transform the landscape and opportunities for cricket to rapidly develop across the country with this infrastructure investment,”
Mehta said.
The Broward stadium is a 10,000 seated facility and is currently the only ICC certified venue for ODIs and T20Is played in the country. But that is likely to change over the next two years as two more venues – the AirHogs Stadium and Church Street Park – look set to be in play for the USA’s half of the 2024 World Cup.
The ICC had awarded USA the co-hosting rights for the T20 World Cup after identifying the country as a longstanding lucrative market for the game with its huge Asian and Caribbean populace. T20 cricket being the governing body’s biggest market player is seen as just the right format to push forward with the USA ambition. The ICC along with its top full-member nations, had also expressed a wish to have a T20I tournament played at the Los Angeles summer Olympics in 2028.
West Indies will be hosting the other half of that T20 World Cup, the successive editions of which will be played every two years, with the 2026 edition co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka, the 2028 edition by Australia and New Zealand and the 2030 iteration of the same by England, Ireland and Scotland.
Four more major events will be held in the 2024-31 ICC rights cycle, with the first of those being the 2025 Champions Trophy in Pakistan. The tournament, which makes a comeback after eight years, will have its following edition in India in 2029.
The 50-over World Cup will be held in 2027 in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia and in 2031 by India and Bangladesh. The Champions Trophy will remain a knock-out style eight-team event, but the World Cup will expand in ODIs to 14 teams and 20 teams in the T20I version.
