Franchise cricket leagues of ICC full member countries have already been recognized for List-A cricket. In order for the franchise of a new country to get this recognition, that country must be a Test player or a full member – the ICC has kept this condition until now.
ICC recently relaxed the conditions. In December, the ILT20 tournament in the United Arab Emirates received ICC recognition for the first time as an associate member country’s franchise.
This time, Major League Cricket (MLC) in the United States has received the recognition of ICC. But the country is not a full member of the ICC. With this, for the second time, the ICC has given the status of first class cricket to an associate member’s franchise.
Accordingly, from now on every match of Major League Cricket will be recognized as an official T20. All records in the tournament will be included in the official statistics.
Justin Gayle, director of MLC to get list status, told Cricinfo, “We are really excited about the news. It is actually a recognition of the high quality of players playing in this tournament. It helps recognize the strength and growing stature of the tournament and will ultimately help increase the credibility of the sport in the United States worldwide.’
The second season of Major League Cricket will start immediately after the T20 World Cup. Bangladesh’s best all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan will play in this franchise starting on July 5. This season he will play for Los Angeles Knight Riders.
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