US’s T20 tournament Major League Cricket signs Viacom18 as media partner in India

The league, operated by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) and sanctioned by USA Cricket, will be covered on OTT platform JioCinema and broadcast television coverage on Sports18, beginning July.

Knight Riders Group owns LA Knight Riders, Indiawin Sports owns MI New York, Anand Rajaraman, Venky Harinarayan own San Francisco Unicorns, Chennai Super Kings, Anurag Jain and Ross Perot Jr. own Texas Super Kings, Washington Freedom is owned by Sanjay Govil. Seattle Orcas is led by a consortium of owners including The GMR Group and Satya Nadella.

The inaugural season will be played in a round-robin format with the four best performing teams competing in a playoff and final round on July 30. The first match will be between Texas Super Kings and the Los Angeles Knight Riders at Grand Prairie Stadium near Dallas, TX.

The GMR Group (co-owners of the Delhi Capitals) and Microsoft chairman & CEO Satya Nadella, is a consortium managed by the GMR Group.

Viacom18 Sports, head of strategy, partnerships and acquisitions, Hursh Shrivastava saud: “Indian viewers love T20 cricket, and we expect them to enjoy the action from the inaugural edition of the league across our platforms.“

Vijay Srinivasan, co-Founder, Major League Cricket said: “Our six teams feature T20 players who fans in India love to watch, and they are the right partner to showcase sports broadcasts in the world’s largest cricket market.“

Kieron Pollard, Rashid Khan, Nicholas Pooran, Trent Boult, Dewald Brevis and Kagiso Rabada will represent MI New York. LA Knight Riders will see Sunil Narine, Andre Rusell, Jason Roy, Adam Zampa and Martin Guptill suit up alongside former India U19 captain Unmukt Chand. A core of Chennai Super Kings stars will form the Texas Super Kings overseas group, captained by Faf Du Plessis alongside Ambati Rayudu, Devon Conway, Dwayne Bravo and Mitchell Santner.

The Seattle Orcas drafted former India U19 left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh as the first pick in the first-ever Domestic Draft for Major League Cricket. Joining Singh on the Orcas are two top international T20 exponents in Quinton De Kock and Mitchell Marsh. Sri Lankan spin wizard Wanindu Hasaranga, Proteas fast bowlers Anrich Nortje and Marco Jansen and hard-hitting Kiwi batsman Glenn Phillips will be joined by former India U19 bowler Saurabh Netravalkar as part of the Washington Freedom.

Marcus Stoinis will bring in strong international and franchise cricket experience alongside fellow Australian Aaron Finch, who will lead the San Francisco Unicorns. In the draft, the Unicorns picked former New Zealand international Corey Anderson in the first round, followed up by England’s World Cup winner Liam Plunkett in the second. Pakistan duo Shadab Khan and Haris Rauf were recently announced as their final signings with Shane Watson as their head coach.

Viacom18 also has or plans to showcase other sporting events like the Indian Premier League, SA20, India’s Tour of West Indies 2023, the Paris Olympics 2024, Ultimate Table Tennis, the World Padel League, the Global Chess League, FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, the NBA, Diamond League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1, and BWF events.

Updated: 07 Jul 2023, 03:18 PM IST