Major League Cricket: A New Era for U.S. Cricket

By Glenn Houlihan

A sea of yellow flags. MS Dhoni's name adorning countless replica shirts. Devon Conway smashing ball after ball to the boundary. Anyone watching on television -- and even those in the stadium -- could be forgiven for thinking they were seeing the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) battle the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL). But this wasn’t Chennai: it was Texas. And, for all the hyperbole surrounding the inaugural season of Major League Cricket (MLC), it was difficult not to feel like this truly was a watershed moment for the sport in the United States of America.

Yet to characterize this event purely in nation-state terminology misses the point: MLC is, in countless ways, a product of sport’s dynamic globalization. Players hailed from across the world, and this hybridity was matched by fans in the ground. MLC organizers clearly expected a large South Asian American turn-out -- Foodistaan, a local Biryani chain, catered the ground -- yet, alongside the widespread IPL and Pakistan gear, I spotted shirts from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and England. Moreover, the apparel on display transcended sports; Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Real Madrid shirts also dotted the stadium, many leading to excitable conversations about the ongoing soccer transfer window. The irony is, of course, that beyond the giant national flag unfurled on the pitch before the match began, U.S. branding was relatively absent from proceedings. This slippage between the local, national, and global was perhaps best illustrated by the chanting around me: what I thought, at first, was "U-S-A, U-S-A" turned out, in fact, to be "C-S-K, C-S-K." Or was it "T-S-K [Texas Super Kings], T-S-K?" The raucous yellow whistles piercing the Grand Prairie Stadium made definitively concluding my investigation impossible.

A group of people holding flags in the air.

Ethnography aside, the cricket was -- as promised time and time again by the organizers -- high-quality. The Los Angeles Knight Riders (owned by the IPL’s KKR) won the toss and decided to put the Texas Super Kings (owned the IPL’s CSK) into bat. (The surrealness of these two Indian-owned franchises playing against each other in Texas, with essentially the same branding, cannot be overstated.) Opening Texas batter Devon Conway and opening LA bowler Ali Khan both embody the post-border nature of contemporary international cricket; the former is a South African-born New Zealander, while the latter is a Pakistani-born American. It was the Kiwi who would emerge victorious from this early encounter, dismissively smashing 12 off the first over with a flurry of boundaries.

Conway would go on to make a thrilling 55, reaching his half-century with a firework-triggering six down the ground off Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa. Yet, to the dismay of the home fans, he fell the next ball attempting exactly the same shot -- this time finding the safe hands of Unmukt Chand on the boundary. Conway’s dismissal, however, failed to halt Texas' momentum. David Miller top scored with a fluent 61, supported by aggressive hitting from Mitchell Santner and Dwayne Bravo, with Bravo smashing 16 off 6 balls. New Zealand quick -- and by quick I mean quick -- Lockie Ferguson was the pick of the LA bowlers, finishing with two wickets at an economy of just 5.75: outstanding figures considering the pace of the wicket and the small dimensions of the ground.

The total seemed competitive but chaseable, especially with big hitters like Martin Guptill, Rilee Rossouw, and Andre Russell in LA’s roster. However, the pitch that had looked so appealing to bat on when Texas were accumulating runs was suddenly transformed into a bowler’s paradise. In the blink of an eye LA were 20-4, and the game was all but over before the powerplay was done. Brilliant bowling or awful batting? LA’s top four collectively contributing just eight runs suggests the latter. Russell’s one-man-show wasn’t enough to salvage things; without a willing partner, his majestic 55 from 34 balls was in vain. While Miller was awarded player of the match, for me the night belonged to leg-spinner Mohammad Mohsin. Pakistan-born Mohsin moved to the U.S. in 2021 and was selected by TSK just one week ago as their Domestic Wildcard pick. What a smart choice they made: he cleaned up the LA tail and finished with sparkling figures of three overs for four wickets and just eight runs.

A crowd of people watching a game at night.

I’ve had my doubts about MLC; with the delayed fixture announcement and last-minute -- literally! -- construction work going on at Grand Prairie Stadium, I even worried that the entire competition might be postponed. I’ve also been skeptical of the focus on international stars over domestic U.S. players, and -- most importantly -- the glaring omission of women’s cricket from the MLC ecosystem. To try to "grow" a sport in such a top-down way has severe limitations. But for the 7000-strong fans in attendance last night -- waving flags, blowing whistles, fluttering four signs -- all that mattered was the cricket. In the oppressive Texan heat, there was a real sense of magic in the air.