Minor League Cricket announces teams and owners list, draft on August 22, exhibition games tentative

Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina
Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina

After a summer of regular changes to the Minor League Cricket timetable, the league has finally made an announcement with some permanence. On Saturday USA Cricket announced the 24 franchises and owners of Minor League Cricket, only one of which is listed as fully owned by the league (Sacramento). Team names range from the refreshingly relevant Philadelphians and Morrisville Cardinals, to the curious Atlanta Param Veers, a reference to India’s highest military honour. 

The field of 24 has been announced one week before the new August 22 date for the official Minor League Cricket draft, and includes some notable owners such as former USACA board members, former national team cricketers, CPL franchise owners, and a few LLCs with no names attached. The draft date was recently moved back in order to “provide teams with additional time to evaluate players and allow further planning in advance of the Draft,” per the announcement.

Major League Cricket’s new logo

Tentative exhibition games are being planned for September and October, perhaps in time for the return of the six ICC Americas players currently in Trinidad for the Caribbean Premier League, depending on Minor League Cricket’s quarantine guidelines. The CPL has taken great measures to ensure the safety of players and staff, requiring overseas players to arrive two weeks prior to the competition and quarantine in their hotels. CPL will stage two games per day between only two Trinidad venues, a bubble approach which will expedite the league schedule and increase viewership in India, due to the earlier local start times and the time zone difference. Minor League Cricket has yet to announce their own Covid-19 related protocols, outside of the fact that travel would be limited to inter-division teams, and that the exhibition “matches will only proceed in conjunction with all local, county, and state authorities’ guidelines.” 

The full list of teams, their cities and owners, as per the USA Cricket release is as follows;

Eastern Conference
Home CityTeam NameTeam Owners 
BostonNew England EaglesRavi Rao
Jack Patel
Nitin Mewada
Pawan Daruri
Ravi Uppalapati
New JerseyNew Jersey Somerset Cavaliers Cricket ClubAslam Khan
Muhammad Nisar Ahmed
New JerseyNew Jersey StallionsVenu Palaparthi
Ravikumar Suri
New YorkEmpire State TitansEmpire State Cricket LLC
PhiladelphiaThe PhiladelphiansWilliam (Ernie) Precious
Murali Kailashnath
Santhosh Kandasamy
Mayurnath Sankar Rao
Sathya Narayana C.V
Jaisri Murahari
Washington DCDC HawksRajit Passey
Western Conference
Home CityTeam NameTeam Owners 
Bay PeninsulaSilicon Valley StrikersbInfinite, LLC
East Bay Bay Blazers Premkumar Suri and Partners
Los Angeles Hollywood Master BlastersJanak Patel
Los Angeles SoCal LashingsAbhimanyu Rajp
Deepak Gosain
SacramentoGolden State GrizzliesMajor League Cricket
San DiegoSan Diego Surf RidersRajinder S. Ghai
Gangaram Singh
Sanjit Menezes
Jimmy Anklesaria
Ram Madabushi
Central Conference
Home CityTeam NameTeam Owners 
AustinAustin AthleticsManish Patel and Partners
ChicagoChicago BlastersIftekhar Shareef
Khurram Syed
American Cricket Academy and Club
ChicagoChicago CatchersCricket management group LLC
DallasIrving MustangsLovkesh Kalia
HoustonHouston HurricanesTanweer Ahmed
MichiganMichigan Cricket StarsNabeel Ahmed
Southern Conference
Home CityTeam NameTeam Owners 
AtlantaAtlanta FireMohammed Hasan Tarek 
Atlanta Atlanta Param VeersJayesh Patel
Ft. LauderdaleFt. Lauderdale LionsKrishna Persaud
MiamiFlorida BeamersCricket management group LLC
MorrisvilleMorrisville CardinalsPraveen Chakraraj and Partners
OrlandoOrlando GalaxyRahul Joshi
Kunal Patel
Ravi Panchal
Mangesh Chaudhari

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