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Washington Freedom (207/5) crush San Francisco Unicorns (111) by 96 runs to win MLC 2024

MLC is the most star struck league in the world after IPL. Perhaps more than IPL even because of its rule to allow more than 4 Overseas players in a playing XI.

One thing is missing though. The atmosphere that you see in other local leagues like IPL, PSL and even BPL. You don't quite see it with MLC in America.
 
Under Steven Smith's captaincy, Washington Freedom have been unbeaten so far
 
Seattle Orcas 142/6

Los Angeles Knight Riders (19.1/20 overs T:143) 143/6

Los Angeles won by 4 wickets (with 5 balls remaining)
 
Having MLC right after World T20 kinda diluted the interest. Also fan base plays a major role in atmosphere. Seattle fans will show up when the match happens at Seattle not somewhere else. That is the downside.
 
Kinda of boring so far. The timings are also pretty odd for subcontinent fans.
 

MI New York vs San Francisco Unicorns, 16th Match:​


San Francisco Unicorns won by 3 runs
 
Pakistan bowlers aren't having a great time so far in MLC 2024

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FearlessRoar said:
Pakistan bowlers aren't having a great time so far in MLC 2024

stl4iex.png
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Imad Wasim’s 3 wickets:

Travis Head
Fin Allen
Jake Fraser McGurk

2 in the powerplay (Head and McGurk)

Stats like this don’t always give the complete picture of the impact the player has for his side.
 
Texas Super Kings have won the toss and have opted to field


Washington Freedom XI: Steve Smith (capt), Travis Head, Rachin Ravindra, Andries Gous (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Obus Pienaar, Mukhtar Ahmed, Marco Jansen, Amila Aponso, Lockie Ferguson, Jasdeep Singh

Texas Super Kings XI: Devon Conway (wk), Faf du Plessis (capt), Aaron Hardie, Joshua Tromp, Milind Kumar, Marcus Stoinis, Calvin Savage, Dwayne Bravo, Mohammad Mohsin, Noor Ahmad, Zia-ul-Haq
 
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Cricket Warrior said:
Texas Super Kings have won the toss and have opted to field


Washington Freedom XI: Steve Smith (capt), Travis Head, Rachin Ravindra, Andries Gous (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Obus Pienaar, Mukhtar Ahmed, Marco Jansen, Amila Aponso, Lockie Ferguson, Jasdeep Singh

Texas Super Kings XI: Devon Conway (wk), Faf du Plessis (capt), Aaron Hardie, Joshua Tromp, Milind Kumar, Marcus Stoinis, Calvin Savage, Dwayne Bravo, Mohammad Mohsin, Noor Ahmad, Zia-ul-Haq
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Washington Freedom won by 42 runs

Washington Freedom (206/5)
Texas Super Kings (164)
 
San Francisco Unicorns vs Seattle Orcas, 18th Match:

San Francisco Unicorns won by 6 wickets

SOR 152/7 (20)
SFU 156/4 (14.2)
 
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FearlessRoar said:
Bowling economy over 8 is fine for you?
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Only Abrar has not so impressive performance. But he only played 2 games that is not a sample size to make any assessment.

Haris has an Economy of 8 which is good for a bowler who bowls at the death overs. Teams these days eye on scoring 12+ in death overs.
 
Quite an enjoyable league I must say... very good standard of cricket... Pitches need to improve in my opinion...

In any case, the quality of cricket is so much better than PSL..

Our toxic political core of Babar Azam, Rizwan, SSA, Shadab Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed and Haris Rauf would be destroyed here (Haris is actually being taken to the cleaners here, what an ordinary bowler)...

PSL is more like "Mohallay ka match" - no international superstars, poor teams competing against each other and exceptional performers in PSL getting badly exposed in International Cricket...
 
usman.sandhu said:
Quite an enjoyable league I must say... very good standard of cricket... Pitches need to improve in my opinion...

In any case, the quality of cricket is so much better than PSL..

Our toxic political core of Babar Azam, Rizwan, SSA, Shadab Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed and Haris Rauf would be destroyed here (Haris is actually being taken to the cleaners here, what an ordinary bowler)...

PSL is more like "Mohallay ka match" - no international superstars, poor teams competing against each other and exceptional performers in PSL getting badly exposed in International Cricket...
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Quality of players participating is only second to IPL. I don't know any other league where we can see such high quality players apart from IPL. I went to many matches this year and experience is great. Obviously the facilities for spectators are wonderful, there are ample opportunities to meet players. I met Cummins, Rashid, Fin Allen, Lucki Furgeson, De Kock, Pollard, Russell, way too many list. Met Gavaskar after two decades and he has hardly aged. It is almost impossible to meet players in india anymore unless we go through our club a d meet them during practice sessions.
 

Los Angeles vs New York, 19th Match at Dallas​


Los Angeles Knight Riders 130 (19.1 Overs)

MI New York 134/6 (17 Overs)

New York won by 4 wickets (with 18 balls remaining)
 
San Francisco Unicorns have won the toss and opted to field first


Washington Freedom (Playing XI): Travis Head, Steven Smith(c), Andries Gous(w), Rachin Ravindra, Jack Edwards, Obus Pienaar, Mukhtar Ahmed, Justin Dill, Akeal Hosein, Andrew Tye, Saurabh Netravalkar

San Francisco Unicorns (Playing XI): Finn Allen, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Josh Inglis(w), Sherfane Rutherford, Corey Anderson(c), Hassan Khan, Tajinder Dhillon, Juanoy Drysdale, Haris Rauf, Matt Henry
 
Cricket Warrior said:
San Francisco Unicorns have won the toss and opted to field first


Washington Freedom (Playing XI): Travis Head, Steven Smith(c), Andries Gous(w), Rachin Ravindra, Jack Edwards, Obus Pienaar, Mukhtar Ahmed, Justin Dill, Akeal Hosein, Andrew Tye, Saurabh Netravalkar

San Francisco Unicorns (Playing XI): Finn Allen, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Josh Inglis(w), Sherfane Rutherford, Corey Anderson(c), Hassan Khan, Tajinder Dhillon, Juanoy Drysdale, Haris Rauf, Matt Henry
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San Francisco Unicorns won by 6 wickets (DLS Method)

WAF 174/3 (15.3)

SFU 177/4 (13.4)
 
Seattle Orcas have won the toss and opted to field


Seattle Orcas (Playing XI): Ryan Rickelton, Quinton de Kock(w), Shehan Jayasuriya, Heinrich Klaasen(c), Shubham Ranjane, Ayan Desai, Ali Sheikh, Michael Bracewell, Keemo Paul, Nandre Burger, Cameron Gannon

Texas Super Kings (Playing XI): Devon Conway(w), Faf du Plessis(c), Joshua Tromp, Marcus Stoinis, Milind Kumar, Calvin Savage, Cameron Stevenson, Zia Shahzad, Mitchell Santner, Noor Ahmad, Ottneil Baartman
 
Cricket Warrior said:
Seattle Orcas have won the toss and opted to field


Seattle Orcas (Playing XI): Ryan Rickelton, Quinton de Kock(w), Shehan Jayasuriya, Heinrich Klaasen(c), Shubham Ranjane, Ayan Desai, Ali Sheikh, Michael Bracewell, Keemo Paul, Nandre Burger, Cameron Gannon

Texas Super Kings (Playing XI): Devon Conway(w), Faf du Plessis(c), Joshua Tromp, Marcus Stoinis, Milind Kumar, Calvin Savage, Cameron Stevenson, Zia Shahzad, Mitchell Santner, Noor Ahmad, Ottneil Baartman
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Texas Super Kings won by 37 runs

TSK 177/8 (20)

SOR 140/9 (20)
 

Texas Super Kings vs MI New York, Eliminator​


Texas Super Kings have won the toss and have opted to field


MI New York (Playing XI): Dewald Brevis, Shayan Jahangir, Nicholas Pooran(w), Monank Patel, Heath Richards, Kieron Pollard(c), Romario Shepherd, Rashid Khan, Trent Boult, Rushil Ugarkar, Nosthush Kenjige

Texas Super Kings (Playing XI): Devon Conway(w), Faf du Plessis(c), Joshua Tromp, Milind Kumar, Marcus Stoinis, Aaron Hardie, Dwayne Bravo, Mohammad Mohsin, Noor Ahmad, Calvin Savage, Zia-ul-Haq
 
Cricket Warrior said:

Texas Super Kings vs MI New York, Eliminator​


Texas Super Kings have won the toss and have opted to field


MI New York (Playing XI): Dewald Brevis, Shayan Jahangir, Nicholas Pooran(w), Monank Patel, Heath Richards, Kieron Pollard(c), Romario Shepherd, Rashid Khan, Trent Boult, Rushil Ugarkar, Nosthush Kenjige

Texas Super Kings (Playing XI): Devon Conway(w), Faf du Plessis(c), Joshua Tromp, Milind Kumar, Marcus Stoinis, Aaron Hardie, Dwayne Bravo, Mohammad Mohsin, Noor Ahmad, Calvin Savage, Zia-ul-Haq
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Texas Super Kings won by 9 wickets.

MINY 163/8 (20)

TSK 167/1 (18.3)

What a chase this is by TSK.
 

Washington Freedom vs San Francisco Unicorns, Qualifier​


Washington Freedom have won the toss and have opted to field

San Francisco Unicorns (Playing XI): Finn Allen, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Josh Inglis(w), Sherfane Rutherford, Corey Anderson(c), Hassan Khan, Pat Cummins, Haris Rauf, Carmi le Roux, Juanoy Drysdale

Washington Freedom (Playing XI): Travis Head, Steven Smith(c), Andries Gous(w), Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Maxwell, Mukhtar Ahmed, Obus Pienaar, Marco Jansen, Ian Holland, Lockie Ferguson, Saurabh Netravalkar
 
Netravalkar

Leading wicket taker

6 games 14 wickets 7.50 ER 11.42 average 9.14 Strike rate

In contrast

Haris Rauf

7 games 3 wickets 8.19 ER 59.66 average 43.66 strike rate
 
Steve smith (c) Jos Inglis (b) Cummins 1(3)

Australian affair. non striker travis head to go with.
 
Sunil Gavaskar, Mbangwa, Darren Ganga... solid commentary team as well. Crowd is very good today. This is as close as you get to international standard in terms of participation.
 
That American batsman Gous was struggling against Cummins and others lol Incomes Rauf he finds the form. First ball 4.
 
Hassan Khan has been brilliant in this event. THis guy has performed in almost every game.
 
Cricket Warrior said:

Washington Freedom vs San Francisco Unicorns, Qualifier​


Washington Freedom have won the toss and have opted to field

San Francisco Unicorns (Playing XI): Finn Allen, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Josh Inglis(w), Sherfane Rutherford, Corey Anderson(c), Hassan Khan, Pat Cummins, Haris Rauf, Carmi le Roux, Juanoy Drysdale

Washington Freedom (Playing XI): Travis Head, Steven Smith(c), Andries Gous(w), Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Maxwell, Mukhtar Ahmed, Obus Pienaar, Marco Jansen, Ian Holland, Lockie Ferguson, Saurabh Netravalkar
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Washington Freedom won by 7 wickets

SFU 145 (19)

WAF 149/3 (15.3)
 

San Francisco Unicorns vs Texas Super Kings, Challenger​


Texas Super Kings have won the toss and have opted to field


Texas Super Kings XI: Faf du Plessis (capt), Devon Conway (wk), Aaron Hardie, Joshua Tromp, Milind Kumar, Marcus Stoinis, Calvin Savage, Mohammad Mohsin, Ottneil Baartman, Noor Ahmad, Zia-ul-Haq

San Francisco Unicorns XI: Finn Allen, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Josh Inglis (wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Hassan Khan, Corey Anderson (capt), Pat Cummins, Haris Rauf, Carmi le Roux, Juanoy Drysdale
 
Hayden is rippin ginto technical short coming of McGurk. Interesting to see how very little his feet move. He has to use his feet. He can maximize his hitting.
 
This time got in his zone. Whacked for six. But he must improve his feet movement. Playing baseball in cricket will produce inconsistent result.
 
This Zia Ul Haq is a pie chucker. Two full tossses . Both hit for six. On top of that no ball. Basically has conceded 13 runs in 1 ball.
 
Harris rauf must be the most brainless bowler around. He was useless yesterday and today as well. No brains whatsoever- buffet bowler.. belongs to the Dinda bowling academy
 
Cricket Warrior said:

San Francisco Unicorns vs Texas Super Kings, Challenger​


Texas Super Kings have won the toss and have opted to field


Texas Super Kings XI: Faf du Plessis (capt), Devon Conway (wk), Aaron Hardie, Joshua Tromp, Milind Kumar, Marcus Stoinis, Calvin Savage, Mohammad Mohsin, Ottneil Baartman, Noor Ahmad, Zia-ul-Haq

San Francisco Unicorns XI: Finn Allen, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Josh Inglis (wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Hassan Khan, Corey Anderson (capt), Pat Cummins, Haris Rauf, Carmi le Roux, Juanoy Drysdale
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San Francisco Unicorns won by 10 runs and they are into the final of the MLC 2024.

SFU 200/6 (20)

TSK 190/4 (20)


Finn Allen scored a wonderful century while Hassan Khan did well today again. 27 off 15 with the bat and 1/25 with the ball. Brilliant all-round performance from him.
 
Bring Hassan Khan back.

This hitting with his spin & fielding.

Trying all the players Pakistan has tried, maybe bring back Hassan & give him a chance.
 
TeymurBlake said:
Bring Hassan Khan back.

This hitting with his spin & fielding.

Trying all the players Pakistan has tried, maybe bring back Hassan & give him a chance.
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100%

Let these ‘domestic cricket ko izzat do’ crybabies cry all they want.

The reason why these good players left your country is because you didn’t give them the respect they actually deserved in the first place.

Hassan Khan was Pakistan’s u19 captain! How could this guy just slip away from the system?
 
jnaveen1980 said:
Netravalkar

Leading wicket taker

6 games 14 wickets 7.50 ER 11.42 average 9.14 Strike rate

In contrast

Haris Rauf

7 games 3 wickets 8.19 ER 59.66 average 43.66 strike rate
Click to expand...

What a loser Haris Rauf has turned out to be...

Every Tom, Dick and Harry can easily smash him all around the park...

No grey matter at all...
 

Washington Freedom vs San Francisco Unicorns, Final​


San Francisco Unicorns have won the toss and have opted to field

Washington Freedom (Playing XI): Travis Head, Steven Smith(c), Andries Gous(w), Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Maxwell, Mukhtar Ahmed, Obus Pienaar, Marco Jansen, Ian Holland, Andrew Tye, Saurabh Netravalkar

San Francisco Unicorns (Playing XI): Finn Allen, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Josh Inglis(w), Sherfane Rutherford, Hassan Khan, Corey Anderson(c), Pat Cummins, Haris Rauf, Carmi le Roux, Juanoy Drysdale
 
Netravalkar created a chance. But dropped. But now he has dismissed Krishnamurthi. He has the highest tally still. Incredible season for him.
 
And that completes a wild summer of cricket here in the States. USA opened it with a dominant 4-1 series win over Canada and a historic 2-1 series victory over Bangladesh (after threatening to sweep at that), a T20 World cup where USA held their own and made some noise, and finally a quality MLC. Hope this causes cricket to continue to rise in the States. Plenty of work to do by the ICC to ensure USA cricket has competent leadership in place and next year's MLC needs to be a further revenue generator.
 
Haris Rauf smashed all over the place... what a pathetic bowler...

PCB is even worse for picking him over and over again... shameful..!!
 
Good to see Hassan Khan doing well after being ignored by PCB. He grabbed the opportunity with both hands there and made a mark.

On the other hand, we have Haris Rauf LOL. Nothing to say.
 

Home runs: The growing Australia-USA cricket crossover​


The second Major League Cricket final was a de facto clash between NSW and Victoria, while more USA players may soon be Big Bash-bound.

At a former baseball stadium in Dallas earlier this week, Australia's greatest male bowler and batter of their generation went head-to-head for the second time in four days.

What shaped as a pair of captivating duels between Pat Cummins and Steve Smith hardly rated a mention in their home country as the Smith-captained Washington Freedom trumped Cummins' San Fransisco Unicorns in the Major League Cricket (MLC) finals.

Despite Smith's match-winning hand of 88 off 52 balls in the tournament decider at the same Grand Prairie ground that hosted the T20 World Cup opener in June, Cummins maintained a little-known hold over his Test vice-captain in both the decider and a preceding qualifying final.

In the four T20 matches in which Smith has faced up to his long-time teammate, Cummins has dismissed him each time. Their head-to-head record stands at 4 wickets for 8 runs from 13 balls across their four encounters in the IPL, and now the MLC.

It's a fact few fans down under will be aware of (nor seemingly was San Fransisco skipper Corey Anderson, who failed to bowl Cummins through the middle overs of the final's first innings while Smith ran rampant) because none of their previous T20 encounters have been in Australia. Nor have they played together in a domestic T20 down under.

So how has a two-year-old tournament held in a non-Test playing nation been able to achieve something Australia’s own T20 league has not?

"It's new – being in America is obviously different to being in Australia, and having that experience is something players are really keen on having over here," Michael Klinger, the former first-class batter who is now the Washington Freedom general manager, told cricket.com.au.

"The other thing, which is pretty obvious, is it's a short tournament. It's a three-week tournament and players of that ilk, they're not coming for the money. They're coming for the experience. They don't need the money.

"This year was unique as well because the tournament was on the back of a World Cup which was played in America and the Caribbean, so lot of these players were already quite close to where we were playing."

The value of Australia’s star power aside, what this latest MLC campaign also revealed was how an increasing number of Australians are driving the fortunes of MLC.

It was a source of pride for Cricket NSW (CNSW) and Cricket Victoria (CV) that this year's finalists – the only two (of six) MLC teams not affiliated with IPL ownership groups – are basically extensions of their own high-performance programs.

Washington Freedom are aligned with CNSW, where Klinger was until recently its head of male T20 cricket, while San Fransisco Unicorns have a similar partnership with CV, whose current general manager of cricket, Graham Manou, also attended the tournament.

The Washington and San Fransisco franchises are owned by Indian and Indian-American tech entrepreneurs, but CNSW and CV receive funding from the clubs in exchange for providing high-performance expertise and personnel.

Both teams' off-field staff are almost entirely made up of Australians. Ex-Test stars Ricky Ponting and Shane Watson are the team’s respective head coaches, complemented by Aussie support staff in Cameron White, Shawn Bradstreet (Washington), Ben Rohrer and Adam Griffith (San Fransisco). MLC's tournament director is Canberra-born Justin Geale, while San Fransisco's GM David White, CV's former head of community cricket, works with Manou in running the Unicorns.

Of the 22 players who featured in the final on Monday morning (AEST), eight were Australian. A further eight took part in the competition. Travis Head was the tournament's most valuable player, while Smith was player of the match in the final.

On the flipside, many of San Fransisco and Washington's local American players had travelled to Australia during last summer's Big Bash.

"We made sure that they were exposed to the professionalism of high-level cricket, which not all of them had been exposed to, and play some games against high-quality opposition," said Klinger.

"To have them exposed to that no doubt has given us an advantage. Just from observing this tournament, it looks like at Washington Freedom and even San Francisco Unicorns, the local players have been the best in the competition."

In essence, the state associations are selling the success of Australian cricket.

That has not gone unnoticed; it is believed Cricket Australia is considering how it might have its own involvement in MLC, and there is an overriding desire to find tangible benefits for Australian cricket from the game’s growth in the USA, particularly ahead of cricket’s return to the Olympics at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

More immediately, that may come as soon as next month's KFC BBL overseas player draft, according to Klinger.

A host of American players, including some who helped USA pull off their shock win over Pakistan that fired them into the T20 World Cup's Super Eights stage in June, will be up for grabs.

Anderson, the former New Zealand international, featured for Hobart Hurricanes last season, but the likes of South Africa-born Andries Gous and former India U19 paceman Saurabh Netravalkar featuring in this summer's BBL would mark a step forward in the Australia-USA cricket relationship.

"I reckon there's going to be a few getting picked up," Klinger said. "There's two in our team who I think (are good chances). Andries Gous a wicketkeeper-batsman who obviously did really well in the World Cup.

"Netravalkar – he was the leading wicket-taker over here and did well in the World Cup as well, a left-arm bowler who can bowl with the new ball and bowl variations at the death. I thought Hassan Khan from the Unicorns, a left-arm orthodox bowler and left-hand middle-order batter, could provide a team with a great option as well.

"Teams would be crazy not to have a look at them, especially with the lack of high-end talent coming into the draft this year from overseas. I think having those guys at the middle to the lower levels will add a lot to some teams."

Driving the growth of US cricket has been the country’s large population who have south-Asian heritage.

The sell-out MLC final in Dallas underlined that community’s strong interest in the game, as did the enormous demand for tickets for the ICC's showpiece World Cup moment, the India-Pakistan match at a 'pop-up' stadium in New York.

Ponting believes more still more can be done by both the MLC and the ICC to develop the game among young Americans.

"I think there's a still a role for the players and the franchises. I think the World Cup missed a trick as well in not promoting the game more at grassroots level, getting into schools," Ponting, a broadcast commentator during the World Cup, said before the MLC final.

"That's where I think the next stage and growth will come from. This generation of American cricket fans, we can't just sit back and hope that they're going to promote the game.

"I think the game needs to do what it can to get out amongst kids. Baseball is such a big game for youngsters here in the US … (but) you go to a baseball game, it's four hours, there's not a lot of excitement that happens. I think it's less than one home-run hit per game.

"If you look at it that way, compared to what an entertainment package of three hours of cricket can bring to a younger generation, that's the way we should be looking at trying to promote the game here."

Those involved in recruiting the game’s best cricketers to their nascent league, are realistic about the road ahead, with Klinger pointing out next year’s international schedule may not be as kind to the competition.

The scarcity of viable venues – this year’s MLC was played at just two, in Dallas and in Morrisville, North Carolina – is another concern. There is also no women’s MLC, though the BBC has reported discussions on an American women’s league are in their infancy.

For the world’s best men’s players, however, the MLC offers advantages its competitors cannot.

Cummins spoke openly about how the Unicorns owners’ links to Silicon Valley and the venture-capital industry was a major draw for him in signing a four-year deal with the team – an unprecedented move for a current Australian Test captain.

Cummins and Fraser-McGurk's filmed Zoom call with Travis Bazzana, a former junior cricketer from Sydney who last month became the first Australian to be taken with the number one pick in the Major League Baseball draft, was another 'only in America' moment.

Australian cricketers' social media posts of playing golf at some of the world's best courses, attending MLB games, eating southern barbeque, and even going to a Morgan Wallen concert, were shrewd advertisements of a trip to the USA.

In this respect, Klinger is bullish that the MLC is ahead of England's soon-to-be-privatised Hundred competition. "Players are choosing it over the Hundred at the moment," he said.

"Who knows what happens in the future, that could change. In an ideal world I'd love to have those two tournaments separated. Potentially with the privatisation of the Hundred, there may be some duplicate owners in both leagues, if that's IPL setups or other setups.

"A short tournament where they can have maximum impact certainly helps (the MLC's appeal). It's going to be key for MLC down the track not to get too greedy and start to play too many games and make the tournament go longer.

"If they do that the likelihood is the best overseas players might not want to come. We've got to find that balance of keeping the tournament quite short and sharp and attracting the best players."

www.cricket.com.au

Home runs: The growing Australia-USA cricket crossover | cricket.com.au

The second Major League Cricket final was a de facto clash between NSW and Victoria, while more USA…
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