Major League Cricket started on Thursday in Texas. This is the most serious effort yet to start a local game in the U.S., and it has everything a modern Twenty20 league needs.
Fans at the purpose-built cricket stadium, which is only 15 minutes by car from Dallas Fort Worth airport, wore the yellow shirts of the winning home team, the Texas Super Kings, and saw the usual big sixes and nonstop action.
The Super Kings beat the Los Angeles Knight Riders by 69 runs after making 181 for six and then getting them out for 112.
Any worries that cricket in America might not be the real thing went away when the game started and the crowd cheered the home team’s big hits.
The field used to be home to the Texas Airhogs, a minor league baseball team that no longer exists. Since MLC took over the stadium, it has spent over $20 million to make it suitable for cricket.
It would have been hard for people watching the TV show to tell the difference between MLC and the other T20 events that have popped up around the world.
There were both foreign players and players from the USA national team. The level of play was professional, and both the field and the pitch looked good.
That was a big change from many past, short-lived attempts to “break the American market” by holding one-off events in places that weren’t good for cricket. It was also a long way from most local cricket, which had been played on matted tracks for years.
Rusty Theron, a South African bowler for Texas, was shocked by how well the first game went.
“To be honest, I’m a little bit upset right now. This is a very big deal. There was an amazing vibe, and I want to thank each and every person who came out,” he said.
Also impressed was Super Kings opener David Miller, who was named Player of the Match for his hard-hitting 61 from 42 balls, which included four sixes.
“It’s wonderful to see so many people here, and the services have been great. “I think a few guys kind of wondered what it was going to be like, but it shot the lights out here,” said the South African, who played in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the best Twenty20 tournament in the world.
The Mumbai Indians, whose New York team started playing on Friday, is one of the four IPL teams that back MLC.
Some of the foreign players chosen by the six teams are English opener Jason Roy, Australian batter Aaron Finch, South African fast bowler Kagiso Rabada, and West Indian spinner Sunil Narine.
Before the playoffs and the last trip back to Texas, there will be more games in Morrisville, North Carolina.
In addition to the IPL teams, Cricket Victoria in Australia has a high-performance relationship with the San Francisco Unicorns, and Cricket New South Wales does the same thing with the Washington Freedom.
The league has deals with India’s Viacom18 and the streaming service Willow TV, whose owners are also partners in MLC.