MLC Earns List A Status, Set To Get Expanded To 10 Teams

MLC Set for an Expansion

USA's biggest T20 tournament, Major League Cricket (MLC) is set for an expansion to 10 teams. The MLC stated that it will be expanding to an 8-team tournament within the period of two seasons and add two more to make it a 10-team franchise tournament. The first season was played in a single round-robin format with 6 teams playing in 19 games.

The second season though is set for an expansion to 6 teams and it will be played in both home and away format. With a 10-team league, expected in future this could get stretched close to 100 games.

In a major boost to this $120m league the ICC has granted MLC a list A status. All the associated nations who have their leagues haven't yet earned an 'A' status.

Vijay Srinivasan CEO of MLC says:

The fever of Cricket in the US is huge when we began with the inaugural season of MLC last year. This year we are more excited and pumped as we have a T20 World Cup coming and then season 2 of MLC

We had a great last year, and this year we are ready again to welcome T20 Cricket to our place, we are ready to win the hearts of American Cricket fans again, especially after a hard-fought season 1.

The MLC looking for an expansion of 10 teams might just hamper the English game as the MLC will most likely make a 10-week window for its 10 teams in both home and away formats. The MLC has a lot of buffer time between the IPL and the Hundred. But with the English and American summers overlapping both leagues might see a clash as well as a tough choice for players to pick and choose their leagues.

Meanwhile, the American Cricket is reaching new heights every day both on and off the field. With season 1 of MLC being a grand success, this year many new companies have tried to enter the sports industry with industrial giants like Cognizant and Stake. It is believed that the title sponsor Cognizant has pledged close to $2m for the upcoming season.

On the field, too things have been good for the USA team as they registered a historic T20I series win against Bangladesh in Houston.