Owners of Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals to own teams in MLC
Three prominent IPL franchises have bought stakes in Major League Cricket (MLC), a new T20 franchise league in the USA, which is scheduled to be launched this July. Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals, ESPNcricinfo has learned, have all bought stake in the MLC and will anchor franchises in New York, Texas and Seattle respectively.
In a media release issued on Thursday, the MLC confirmed the alliance between Seattle franchise and Capitals, and said the team would be called Seattle Orcas. Other than Nadella and GMR, the other investors in the Orcas franchise comprise Soma Somasegar (managing director of Madrona Ventures), Samir Bodas (co-founder and CEO, Icertis), Ashok Krishnamurthi (managing partner, GreatPoint Ventures) and Sanjay Parthasarathy (former senior executive at Microsoft and Avalara). Super Kings, too, have allied with a local investor in the Texas franchise.
The inaugural season of MLC will be played between July 13 and 30 at the newly renovated facility in the Dallas suburb of Grand Prairie, Texas, with the player draft for local US players scheduled to be on March 19 at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. The squad size will comprise minimum 15 and maximum 18 players, of which nine can be overseas players. At least six players in the playing XI will need to be from the USA. The overseas players will be direct signings by the franchises, not part of the draft. It is understood that teams will have a purse of USD 800,000 for overseas signings and USD 300,000 for the US-based players.
