In a relief to both Major League Cricket (MLC) and Minor League Cricket (MiLC), both USA Cricket and International Cricket Council (ICC) have sanctioned the two leagues. While the USAC announced its nod in a media statement few hours ago, it is reliably learnt that ICC has given the green signal too.
“USAC is pleased to announce the sanctioning of the Major League Cricket (MLC) and Minor League Cricket (MiLC) tournaments for 2023. Over the past few months, we have worked diligently with Ace to ensure that the MLC and MiLC are positioned well to support the growth of cricket in the United States,” a media release by USA Cricket stated.
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Hours after the USA Cricket release, ICC too has sanctioned the two leagues and have allowed the Members to issue No Objection Certificates (NOCs) to players invited to participate in the two leagues.
“ICC has sanctioned the Major League Cricket and Minor League Cricket events. Members are free to issue NOC to any of their invited players to participate in these events should they wish to do so,” a ICC source told News18 CricketNext.
Industry sources tracking developments revealed that the delay in sanctions was a ploy by the USAC to revise terms of the original agreement it had signed with American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) – the group behind the two leagues – back in 2019. The media release hinted at a possibility of reviewing the original agreement.
“We are pleased with Ace‘s commitment and best efforts to include all the current men’s national team players in the major league tournament. Additionally, we look forward to working with Ace to provide governance of the tournaments. Finally, we will review our commercial relationship with Ace over the next few months,” the release added.
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Last month, days after the historic MLC draft, ICC shot an email to its members and urged them to not issue NOCs (No Objection Certificate) to its players for the two leagues. The ICC had no option but to send the note as the process to sanction the league had not reached the global cricketing body.
“The reason the note was sent to Members was that the process to sanction the league has not yet reached the ICC not that there are any perceived issues. For any domestic league involving overseas players from a Full Member the Associate Member must get the event sanctioned,” an ICC source had told News18 CricketNext.
The MLC will be a six-team competition featuring Los Angeles Knight Riders, MI New York, San Francisco Unicorns, Seattle Orcas, Texas Super Kings and Washington Freedom. The tournament is set to begin in July this year and will see participation from international stars like Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Marsh, Quinton de Kock and others.
There is plenty of Indian interest, apart from the team ownership, as the likes of Unmukt Chand, Harmeet Singh, Smit Patel and Milind Kumar will turn up for their respective teams.
While Unmukt, Smit and Harmeet were part of the India U-19 squad which won the 2012 World Cup, Milind was a consistent performer in the domestic circuit for Delhi before he moved base to Sikkim and Tripura.
USA Cricket election results announcement
In another development, USA Cricket announced delayed results for the 2021 elections. Arjun Gona was elected as the Individual Director while Srinivas Salver and Anj Balusu were elected unopposed as Male Director and League Director respectively.
The voting for the aforementioned posts ended over a week back but there was a delay in announcement of the results of already delayed polls.
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